April 20, 2008	Sunday	Rabi-us-Sani 13, 1429

LONDON, April 19: Fast bowler James Anderson has experienced some dramatic ups and downs during his five-year England career, and his latest tour of New Zealand gave him an ideal microcosm.

He was called back for the second Test in Wellington and starred with five first-innings wickets on the way to a series-turning win, but one match later in Napier his form had faded, and he was hit for more than six an over by Stephen Fleming in the first innings and Matthew Bell in the second.

“It was very frustrating, and I can’t really put my finger on why it happened,” said Anderson at Lord’s. “It’s just the way it goes I guess. The pitch was flatter in Napier, but in both innings I started off reasonably well and it was coming out quite nicely.

“Then I had one bad over, and I tried to chase it from there.”

Bad overs are a bit of a feature of Anderson’s game. In Kandy, before Christmas, he was clubbed for six fours in consecutive balls by Sanath Jayasuriya, and in Napier, he suffered arguably a greater ignominy, as Bell – a batsman who had failed to pass 30 all series – dashed towards a half-century with four blows in a row of increasing authority.

The impression is that Anderson’s head drops as soon as a batsman gets after him, but the man himself disagreed with that suggestion.

“It’s not getting down on myself, but when you’ve gone for 30 off five, you have got to pull it back from there,” he said.

“My thought process is to bowl maidens, and I want to be pretty economical, keeping the run-rate below three. I was probably chasing it a bit too hard rather than being patient and letting the rhythm do it like I did in Wellington.”

Anderson suffered an injury setback during the Wellington Test, when he twisted his ankle in a warm-down game of football, but by and large, he said he felt as comfortable in his run-up and action as he has been for several years.

There was a period around 2004-05 when Anderson’s action, which involves an awkward dipping of the head at point of delivery, was completely deconstructed by the England coaching staff. But all that, he believes, is now behind him.

“I think I have gone full circle now,” he said. “I have played for five years now, and I think technically and physically my action is as good as it is going to get.

“I am comfortable now it feels really natural, and I don’t think there is an awful lot more I can do with it.

“When I first started, my leading arm was somewhere behind the back of my head. Now it is somewhere where it feels comfortable.”

Anderson returns to competitive action for Lancashire next week, but the countdown is already on for the first Test of the rematch against New Zealand at Lord’s on May 15.

There is no guarantee that Anderson will feature in the first Test, however.

His poor showing in Napier has given hope of a recall to Matthew Hoggard and Steve Harmison, the men who made way for his Wellington comeback, and also looming on the horizon is Anderson’s Lancashire team-mate, Andrew Flintoff, who has completed 28 overs in his comeback match at Surrey – his heaviest workload since the Brisbane Test in November 2006.

“It’s going to be a real battle for places. No one’s place is set in stone,” he stated.—Agencies