Everyone wanted to start afresh: Anderson by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Player:	JM Anderson
Event:	Australia in British Isles 2009

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DateLine: 18th July 2009

 

James Anderson revealed that England did not wanted to waste their 'get-out-of-jail' card and that was behind England's dominant display in the second Test.

 

Anderson, who was one of the saving stars at Cardiff, starred with both bat and ball as Australia closed the second day on 156 for eight, still 70 runs short of avoiding the follow-on at Lord's.

 

The right-armer claimed four for 36, his best Ashes figures, after hitting a good 29 and sharing a 47-run alliance for the 10th wicket with Graham Onions.

 

"Everyone wanted to start afresh here," said Anderson.

 

"We used the fact we got out of jail a little bit in Cardiff and are still in the series at 0-0. We knew we had to take advantage of that.

 

"We didn't want to waste getting a draw out of that game by coming here and not performing."

 

The 26-year-old said that the team wanted to reach 400 which could have given the side the required momentum.

 

"It certainly gave the team a bit of momentum," said Anderson.

 

"One thing we spoke about was to get to 400 and the partnership at the end got us there. It gave us a bit of extra momentum and confidence and we started well with the ball.

 

"We knew there was a little bit in the pitch for us and if we asked enough questions of their batsmen there would be reward for us.

 

"Anyone is vulnerable when the ball is moving around. It is nice to see the ball moving laterally but it just did enough and sometimes that can work just as well as if it is hooping around corners."

 

Then with the leather in hand and bowling in tandem with the equally impressive Andrew Flintoff, he sent back Phillip Hughes, from a glove down the leg-side, and Ricky Ponting via a controversial decision from Rudi Koertzen before lunch.

 

South African umpire Koertzen, standing in his 100th Test, referred an appeal for a catch when the ball squeezed past the inside edge and to slip via the batsman's pads.

 

Television replays clearly showed no contact had been made with bat and Ponting was justifiably leg before wicket.

 

"I was originally going up for lbw, I knew there were two noises there and the umpire gave it caught because he obviously thought the other noise was the bat," Anderson explained.

 

"I wasn't going up for the catch, the other guys were going up for that."

 

Anderson also spoke about the plans they had for Aussie batting.

 

"A couple of their guys we target with the short ball and a couple of them we just bowled quite tightly at.

 

"Certainly with Marcus North, we dried him up for runs and he ended up playing a false shot. Our plans in general pretty much worked out."