Just look at the names of the three players Jimmy Anderson dismissed yesterday: Sehwag, Tendulkar and Gambhir. That is the sort of treble that Alastair Cook could only dream about when he threw him the ball.
Anderson was outstanding again. His control of length and line was immaculate from beginning to end. Piyush Chawla may have ended up with four wickets for India but Anderson was unquestionably the bowler of the day.
Out again: Tendulkar has fallen to Anderson nine times in TestsOn an up-and-down pitch like that a captain will tell his seamers to bowl straight with a split field but the danger, as Ishant Sharma discovered when he was clipped to the leg side by Kevin Pietersen, is that they will stray to a line around middle and leg. Where Anderson was different is that he never strayed from around off and middle.
It was said that the ball which did for Tendulkar kept low but it was no lower than the bulk of the others in the context of this game. It was late movement that did for Sachin, as it did for Sehwag.
That is the ninth time Anderson has dismissed Tendulkar and I think it is getting a bit psychological with the Little Master now. Monty Panesar is all over him at one end and Anderson at the other. If one of them doesn't get him, the other will. We had no-one who could master him in my day!
Anderson just works Tendulkar over now. No-one has been better at working bowlers out than Sachin over the years but he just cannot work Jimmy out. He doesn't know which way the ball will swing.
Tendulkar now has one innings left in this series to get it right, but one thing I will say is that it is not for me to say when he should retire.
He has been the greatest player I played against and have seen and he has earned the right to decide when the best time is to go. I just hope he is able to go out on a high.
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