I said earlier I will share an Anderson stat once the innings ends, well there is a break on so I think I may as well share it. This test started with Cook saying Anderson was the best playing today. Before this also we have had the Steyn Anderson discussion on this forum.
Again I take nothing away from Anderson and indeed the rest of the english bowling this tour, they did well, but having said this, the Indian batting has been so poor than a bunch of Baboons bowling to them would probably have achieved similar results !
The point is Anderson has performed very well in England for the most part, but has very very average figures outside of England. Steyn on the other hand keeps things a constant everywhere.
Lets compare -
Anderson
In Africa - Bowl Avg 38.72 S/R - 65.6
In WI - Bowl Avg. 38.00 S/R - 86.0
In Asia - Bowl Avg 33.45 S/R - 66.6
In Aus - Bowl Avg - 38.44 S/R - 69.3
In NZ - Bowl Avg - 36.27 S/R - 58.6
Now however you look at those numbers, those are not befitting of the Best Bowler playing today. That shows Anderson has for the most part delivered 'only' in Eng. I have not looked but I will not be surprised if in Eng Anderson averages less than 15 or something mental like that ! However, that again shows the point that Anderson has mostly performed on custom made home pitches. Thats not a great bowler. I can recall Kumble who has a mental record in India. However that he picked up most of those wickets on custom made pitches meant he never quite got the respect that the third highest test wicket-taker ever (which he is) would ordinarily get. That was because Kumble was only doing well in India, and an also ran everywhere else (outside Subcontinent). Make no mistake those Anderson figures outside Eng are 'also ran' category. So just as Kumble was labelled a sub-continent bully, Anderson is a Custom made wicket bully.
Steyn
In Africa (Not SA) - Bowl Avg 10.50 S/R - 33.0
In WI - Bowl Avg. 18.13 S/R - 33.0
In Asia - Bowl Avg. - 20.61 S/R - 34.7 (In Asia where he has LEAST help from Pitches !!)
In England - Bowl Avg. - 31.65 S/R - 55.4 (I know its a bit high, but its still lower than anything Anderson has outside Eng)
In Aus - Bowl Avg - 28.3 S/R - 48.1
In NZ - Bowl Avg. - 26.5 S/R - 66.8
That is a super super spread. Super performances everywhere. Personally this ends the debate from my point of view.
The argument an Anderson supporter/backer could say here is that its incorrect to say Anderson performs on custom made pitches, because if that was the case and pitches in England were custom made for Anderson, in England, then Steyn would not be averaging 31.65 in Eng. If Anderson finds a pitch to his liking then Steyn would too. So if pitches were custom made for Anderson then Steyn would also do well on those pitches and not average 31.65 in test matches in Eng.
Well the response to that point is simple too. Its obvious that in the fear of Steyn and Co, Eng didn't prepare wickets to help the seamers. So Steyn had no help from the pitch, but neither did Anderson. This is further backed up by the fact that in the matches at home (in Eng) vs SA, Anderson averages 37.76 !! When Steny and Anderson both avg over 30, its clear evidence that the pitches in those series were made to help Eng bat and not Anderson and more important not Steyn.
So forget not being able to perform away on non-custom made pitches, Anderson cannot even perform in Eng, when the pitches (for fear of the opposition seamer - Steyn), are not custom made to his style !
)
(j/k)
