England’s all-time highest wicket-taker James Anderson lit up the Trent Bridge on Day 2 of the ongoing first Test against India in Nottingham. Anderson brought England back into the game after a tremendous opening stand (97 runs) by Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul.
The ‘Burnley Express’ bagged two back-to-back wickets in the 41st over of India’s first innings. Anderson dismissed Cheteshwar Pujara and Indian captain Virat Kohli with consecutive deliveries to send shockwaves to the Indian camp.
Anderson sent back Kohli for a golden duck, and right after catching the ‘big fish’, the right-armer jumped in joy and celebrated like a debutant. Anderson went for a wobble seam and pitched up the ball on the uncertainty corridor outside off-stump. It appeared that the red-leather would come in, but after pitching, the ball nipped away, drawing Kohli into the forward push, only to find an edge.
After the end of days play, Anderson revealed the reason behind his ‘animated celebration’, which fans don’t see quite often. The 39-year-old said the wicket of Kohli was quite special as the Indian skipper is such an influential cricketer. Anderson expressed that it was an ‘outpour of emotion’ as those two quick wickets shifted the momentum towards England.
“We knew if we got one wicket, we could maybe get a cluster – and that’s what we did. We stuck to our task really well as a group. I thought it was a really good fightback. To get a couple of quick ones like that was important, especially Virat, with him being such an influential player for them. It’s always good to get him early,” said Anderson as quoted by SkySports.
“It was an outpour of emotion really, getting the team back in the game and getting their best player out,” he added.
India scored 125/4 on the second day, which was majorly impacted by the rain, washing off the entire third session.
