England's bowlers lavished with praise
Will Luke
25-Feb-2013
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Ryan Sidebottom has taken 20 wickets at 22 apiece in his Test career thus far but, as Scyld Berry points out in today's Sunday Telegraph, he now has to go where no England left-armer has gone before: take 100 Test wickets.
He has had a few fine predecessors but none has taken 100 wickets in Test cricket. Frank Foster and Jeff Jones were permanently injured in their mid-twenties, an ill omen if ever there was for the latter's son Simon; Bill Voce got closest with 98 wickets. A barrier remains to be broken.
His predecessor of a generation ago serves as both warning and example. John Lever made a very similar start, taking 26 wickets in his first five Tests, all of them in India in 1976-77. He swung the new ball there, by one means or another, but did not do so consistently in other places so that his Test career tally was little more than double. He also had competition for a place from Ian Botham, Bob Willis and Chris Old.
In the same paper, Mike Atherton is full of praise for England's bowlers after their performance yesterday - in particular for James Anderson.
But, of course, this is an older, wiser Anderson, less likely, I would have thought, to celebrate his success by daily changing his hairstyle. A difficult few years, with injuries, loss of form and a remodelling or two of his action, have brought a greater maturity and awareness of how fragile success can be. Good form needs to be cherished and nurtured and success appreciated.
In The Sunday Times, Simon Wilde reserves special mention for Chris Tremlett, England's towering fast bowler who, though not the quickest, is "riding the wave of fashion" by generating bounce.
In the past Tremlett did not always make the best of his height because his left knee collapsed at the point of delivery, but he appears to have rectified this problem at Lord’s, Michael Holding, a fastidious critic of fast-bowling technique, said that Tremlett’s action could not be faulted. His action also bore a remarkable similarity to Harmison bowling at his best: head high, body tall.
Will Luke is assistant editor of ESPNcricinfo