3 minute read
Today it seems fitting to run this magnificent graphical tribute to James Anderson’s batting, which was sent in by longstanding-but-intermittent King Cricket contributor, Bert, who writes….
Days like this don’t come along very often. We are witnessing the end of one of the greatest eras of sport this country has ever seen – the career of James “Jimmy” Anderson. So it seems appropriate to offer a small graphical tribute to surely the greatest number 11 batter this country has ever produced.
Jimmy Anderson scored zero in Test matches 78 times!
In nearly one third of the total number of times Anderson walked out to bat in tests, he walked back in again having personally contributed less than one run to the total. In more than half of his innings, he contributed zero, one or two runs. One time he contributed 81, but we shouldn’t let this failure mar an otherwise spotless career of tailendery.
A signature James Anderson innings comprised a casual walk to the crease that even David Gower would have been proud of. He took his guard in the manner of all tail-enders, from club level to internationals – with a level of seriousness and detail that would make any umpire think “What’s the bloody point?” And then he stood there while all of the not-quite-best fast bowlers in the world hurled missiles at him.
Often he did this for quite a while. He was part of the highest last-wicket partnership in Test history, of course – this was the match in which he accidentally scored 81. Far more than this, he watched as his batting partners added two and a half thousand runs to England’s total.
Of the runs he scored himself (1,353), 98% were off the edge to the third man boundary. This isn’t true, but certainly most of them were. Or at least some of them. He definitely edged a couple through the slips, I remember that. Utterly bizarrely, his other major scoring stroke was the reverse sweep.
Another astonishing statistic. The job of a batter is firstly to not get out. Anderson batted in a series of partnerships with other batters, many of whom had been picked specifically for their batting ability. And yet at the end of the innings, in 43% of the cases it was our Jimmy who was not out.
> The James Anderson Rubbish Team-Mates XI
Given the closeness of this figure to what would be the statistically most likely number if everything else were equal, this means that everything else must be equal – that is, Anderson was as good at batting as ALL of the people he batted with. Pietersen, Trott, Root, Panesar – Anderson was as good as if not better than all of these.
So, a graph that shows that his most common score was zero not out. And that is how he has finished* – zero, not out.
It will be a long time ’til we see his like again.
*At the time of writing, West Indies are trailing by 171 with four second innings wickets left. If Anderson gets another bat, something will have gone very badly wrong.
> James Anderson’s retirement: Why England will become more watchable without their most watchable bowler
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