Miracle ball puts Anderson back in the swing

Yesterday at Lord's, Jimmy Anderson produced a moment worthy of lighting up this or any other summer, a delivery to dismiss Saurav Ganguly of such exquisite beauty that a frame-by-frame montage of it should be mounted in the pavilion to be gloried at in perpetuity.

For the time being, in the absence of the above, words will have to do.

From the first ball of the morning session Anderson had been swinging the ball both ways at will, placing a batsman with 13 Test hundreds to his name from 94 Tests in such a state of bamboozlement that he seemed uncertain whether to play straight, inside or outside the original line of the ball in order to counter the swing.

Then, in the fifth over of the day, with India stalled on 155-4 response to England's first-innings 298, Anderson unravelled his masterpiece.

The delivery began its journey aimed outside off stump and maintained its line until the very last moment, at which point it moved so far and so fast that it appeared to swing around Ganguly's bat and crash into middle and off pegs.

So late, in fact, was the latest of late swing Anderson had managed to impart on a ball 61.3 overs old that it had the same effect as a huge 85mph leg-break (to a right-hander) — making it completely unplayable.

It was probably the ball of his career. England and he will hope it is definitely the ball that restarts it.

For, in the course of a hugely impressive bowling performance during which he used all his craft to in-and-outswing the first Test back in England's favour, with subsequent success against Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Zaheer Khan, Anderson did more than simply record the third five-wicket haul of his career.

With richly deserved figures of 5-42, he did more than simply record his Test best analysis. And even more than complete an Indian hat-trick of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Ganguly, a trio with 74 Test hundreds between them.

Laudable as those achievements are, the most significant of all was that he also suggested he may at last be about to end an extraordinary and at times harrowing journey from his Test debut in 2003 as a 20-year-old club bowler to a real live swing-bowling match-winner with a part to play in England's plans to win back the Ashes in 2009.

In the beginning, after having been plucked from nowhere to cover for Andy Caddick in England's VB series in Australia before the 2003 World Cup, Anderson went on to star in it. He returned to take a five-for on Test debut against Zimbabwe, then a total of 26 wickets in his first Test season and slotted in England's first-ever one-day international hat-trick against Pakistan in between.

What could possibly go wrong? Everything. Within two years, Anderson was holding a one-way ticket to the scrapheap. His head apparently swollen by the attempts of the England and Wales Cricket Board's marketing department to brand him cricket's David Beckham, and sent spinning by the remodelling of his action proposed by the ECB medical team, Anderson was all but finished.

Beaten down by the confusion and self-doubt created by all of the above, by the time he was called in to bowl in the fourth Test of the 2005 series against South Africa in Johannesburg, his control and action and everything were so awry that he admitted on occasion to starting his run-up in tears.

Slowly, painstakingly, through a full county season with Lancashire where he was sent by the selectors to rediscover his enjoyment of playing cricket, he dragged himself off the floor.

And yesterday David Graveney & Co would have been forgiven for congratulating themselves on the outcome and thanking the stars that injury to Matthew Hoggard opened the door for him to play his first home Test for three years. Since his debut England have played 53 Tests.

This is Anderson's 17th. Talk about unfinished business. Almost as encouraging for them was the performance of Ryan Sidebottom, who took 4-65 and maintained admirable control as well as fiery aggression and Chris Tremlett, never less than a handful with extra bounce from a length.

Later, Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook fell cheaply as England attempted to convert the lead of 97 to a matchwinning position and they were forced to spend a good deal of their effort dodging the rain.

Which is why, on such a day, in such a summer, thank goodness for Anderson.