English skipper Alastair Cook was all praises for James Anderson who bowled his heart-out in the second innings and ended up with 10 wickets in the first test of five-match Ashes Series at Trent Bridge. Anderson picked up the wickets at regular intervals to bring back England into the contest and finally managed to win it by 14 runs as he got the wicket of Brad Haddin. It was the second time in his career when he has picked up 10 wickets or more in a match. Haddin knitted a 65-run partnership with number 11 batsman James Pattinson who remained unbeaten on 25.
"I always said I would be the only England captain not to go bald in the job but days like today won't help that," joked Cook at the presentation ceremony after Australia.
Cook was quoted by Indian Express saying, "Australia fought incredibly hard and a lot of credit to them for the way those guys batted today. But we just hung in there incredibly well. Jimmy was outstanding. He always wants one more over -- I think 13 was probably quite a lot in that first hour!"
Cook dismissed the talks of over-reliability on Anderson by saying, "No, not at all. He's a world-class bowler and you sometimes use him in these situations when you know there's a time frame.”
He added that the value of Ian Bell’s innings cannot be side-lined, especially when the wickets were tumbling one after the other. "It was a real innings of character, determination and skill," he said.
Meanwhile Anderson was quoted by Deccan Herald saying, "I had the nerves going a little bit but I love bowling here, it's been good to me over the years and I'm happy that I could pick up some more wickets. If I'm bowling 13-over spells it's going to be difficult! But it's Ashes cricket. I love playing Test match cricket and the Ashes is right up there, and that's why we do the hard work in the gym -- to get out there and bowl long spells."
Anderson's match figures were his best in Test cricket figures since he took 11 for 71 against Pakistan at Trent Bridge in 2010.
This was Australia's fifth straight Test loss following their 4-0 series defeat in India earlier this year. According to a report in the Indian Express, the biggest disappointment for Aussies is their middle-order which has failed to fire collectively even in the first innings it was the record partnership of Philip Hughes and Ashton Agar was the one responsible for giving them a slender lead of 15 runs.
Script remained more or less the same in second innings for Australia as it was the 11th wicket stand of Haddin and Pattinson brought them so close of ending their losing streak.
Meanwhile Deccan Chronicle quotes Clarke saying: "I don't care how we make the runs, so long as we get them. The boys can hold their heads high. It was a wonderful game of cricket but credit to England. They fought really hard through the five days and the two best performers were Ian Bell making a hundred and Jimmy Anderson getting five in both innings, so they deserved to win."
Throwing some more light on the couple of things that were the highlight of the match he said, “Agar an amazing talent, a great kid. He's got a very smart mind. He's a lot older than his age would tell you. He loves the game, he's enjoying being around the Australian family, and I think you're going to see a lot more of him."
Clarke is not happy with the way DRS worked out in the opening test of the Ashes series but has made sure that he will use it more wisely from now on just like his counterpart Alastair Cook. "I am not happy with my use of DRS but both teams are using it and England has used it better than I have. It is consistent for both teams."