On March 9, England’s James Anderson scaled one of the highest peaks of professional cricket when he had India’s Kuldeep Yadav caught behind to claim his 700th wicket in Test matches. He became only the third bowler to reach the summit and the first pacer to do so – a feat made more astonishing for the fact that it comes in 187 matches. It’s unusual for pacers to have such long careers.
Such feats are also impossible without a bowler having been able to master a variety of bowling conditions. For example, Mr. Anderson averages only 27.5 in the spin-friendly conditions of South Asia. But in the first phase of his career, when he established himself as a fearsome pacer for batters to reckon with, seam and swing were his instruments of choice.
When the bowled ball pitches seam-first into the pitch, the way it bounces back up becomes hard to predict – more so than if the ball is swinging, which batters can read ‘in the air’.
