England vs India: James Anderson equals Glenn McGrath’s record for most-wickets by a pacer

James Anderson burst in late on Day 4 at the Oval Test on Monday taking two Indian wickets to level Australia pacer Glenn McGrath as the highest wicket-taking fast bowler in international cricket.

Anderson has 563 wickets, the same as McGrath and will need just one more scalp to become the most successful fast bowler ever in cricket’s history. With India reeling at 58/3 and an entire day’s play still remaining, the record seems likely to be broken.

The 36-year-old, however, has taken 143 Test matches to get there, which is 19 more than McGrath’s 124. Bowling late on Day 4 after the batsmen had set up a mammoth 464-run target helped by twin centuries from Joe Root and Alastair Cook, Anderson took the wickets of Shikhar Dhawan and Cheteshwar Pujara to reach the milestone.

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Muttiah Muralitharan (800 wickets), Shane Warne (708) and Anil Kumble (619) are the spin trio that leads the all-time list of most-wickets by a bowler in international cricket.

Most of Anderson’s wickets, however, have come at home while he has struggled in overseas conditions. Of his 563 wickets, only 174 have come in foreign conditions in 54 Tests, with five five-wicket hauls and no ten-wickets in a match.

Meanwhile, Anderson’s bowling partner Stuart Broad dismissed Virat Kohli to remain just one wicket short of equaling Indian legend Kapil Dev’s of record 434 wickets. Broad remains eight in the illustrious list and three behind Anderson.

In a day the bowlers broke so many records, retiring England batsmen Alastair Cook became only the fifth batsmen to score a century on Test debut and final match.

Cook, who announced his retirement after the fifth and final Test against India at The Oval, scored 147 in the second innings of the Test before getting out Hanuma Vihari. In the process, he joined an illustrious list of cricketers to have achieved the feat of scoring tons in both his debut and final Test match. Cook had scored a century in his first Test at Nagpur in 2006 against the same opposition.

Australia’s Reginald Duff was the first cricketer to have reached the landmark. While another Aussie pair Bill Ponsford and Greg Chappell also achieved the feat. India’s Mohammed Azharuddin was the last batsmen to have registered the record before Cook.

Image Source: The Independent