James Anderson again reminds us all of his supremacy in Tests with his superb spells at The Oval

James Anderson is a boom or bust bowler. He rarely has an average day in the cricket field. He is either brilliant or pathetic. He is never in the middle.

When the ball swings, Anderson becomes the best bowler on the planet, a bowler on whom you can bet your life. But when the swing dies and the red cherry loses its shine, the English pacer loses all his weapons. He then becomes a human machine which runs in and sends cricket ball to batsmen so that they can hit them anywhere they wish.

In the first innings of the Oval Test, the pace bowler bowled three overs with the new ball. Three overs for eight runs. It was decent and tight. But it lacked the venom that was required to dismantle the South African openers.

Anderson was toothless in his first spell in the 1st innings

So Joe Root replaced Anderson with the debutant Toby Roland-Jones and then everything changed. The slight seam movement by Roland-Jones did the trick and South Africa’s top order crumbled. It was a classic Test match batting collapse.

Du Plessis’ costly mistake

After Roland-Jones dismantled the top four Proteas batsmen, Root called back Anderson to replace Stuart Broad. It was done not because the pacer was brilliant in his first spell. It was done because Broad was tired after bowling eight overs.

The first three overs from the right-arm pacer had indicated that this was a pathetic day for him. He was struggling to get his length right and had failed to extract any swing from the conditions.

But on the very first ball of his second spell, Faf du Plessis experienced a brain freeze moment. For reasons best known to him, Du Plessis decided to leave an in swinger that was aimed at his off-stump. The ball crashed on his back leg and the South African captain was adjudged leg before the wicket.

This mistake by the South African skipper not only cost him his wicket but it also woke up Anderson. Suddenly the quiet and pathetic Anderson turned into the invincible and brilliant Anderson.

Morris undid by the magic of Anderson

For the rest of the over, the English pacer kept on inviting Chris Morris to come forward. He kept his line around off-stump and ensured that Morris had to play every ball.

In the next two overs, he continuously beat the outside and inside edge of the South African batsman. Anderson bowled in the channel and didn’t offer Morris any room to free his arms.

The England pacer kept on bowling on and around off-stump probing the batsman. It was a classic Test match bowling trap that tested patience and skills.

And finally, after surviving the ordeal for three overs, Morris gave up. On a fuller delivery, he couldn’t resist himself from playing a drive. The ball moved in a little causing Morris to mistime the drive and Anderson took a smart catch in his own follow through.

A sensational second spell

In his second spell, the 35-year-old bowled seven overs and gave away eight runs. Out of those eight runs, four were a result of an over throw. 42 balls for four runs and two wickets.

This was the best of Anderson. After failing to extract venom in his first spell, he came back from the other end and pouncing on the mistake committed by the South African captain he stamped his dominance on the match.

In that phase of seven overs, he focused on bowling just outside the off-stump and moved the ball in both directions, keeping the batsmen on their toes. The slight length adjustment resulted in wickets but the pressure on the batsmen was created due to his accuracy.

Roland-Jones’ dream debut was too hard to ignore, but Anderson with his classic Test match bowling ensured that he too shared the honours.

Anderson finishes with three wickets

The master at work: Anderson in the second spell at Oval

Later in the innings, the right-arm pacer came back to wrap up South Africa’s innings and he did his job effectively by sending back Morne Morkel.

The overall figures of the legendary England pacer in the first innings read three wickets for 25 runs in 13 overs with six maidens.

Against the five-wicket haul of Roland-Jones, these figures are easily overshadowed. But ask Morris, Temba Bavuma and Temba Bavuma who felt the wrath in that second spell and they will tell you how threatening Anderson was.

Maybe this is the beauty of Test cricket. Sometimes the most beautiful moments are never revealed in the scorecard, they can only be experienced while watching the game.

Just like Anderson’s fine bowling spell at Oval. Running in with his fluent action, bowling over after over in the same corridor and waiting for the batsmen to blink his eye. Simple, significant and beautiful Test cricket.