The West Indies’ plan to acknowledge England great James Anderson with a guard of honour fell by the wayside after a rare moment of exuberance at Lord’s instead left them celebrating “all the way down to Swiss Cottage”.
Anderson walked out to bat on Thursday for what now seems certain to be the final time in his England career – the West Indies were 171 runs behind with just four wickets standing at stumps on the second day – after talks with team management led him to announce this fixture would be his 188th and last Test.
It has become a tradition for a fielding side to give a guard of honour when a leading opposition cricketer is coming into bat for the final time in a Test.
And that was the West Indies’ intention on Thursday before No. 11 Anderson walked out to a standing ovation from a capacity crowd at Lord’s.
He took the field after a brilliant run out by Mikyle Louis, whose direct hit to dismiss Shoaib Bashir sparked joyous celebrations among the West Indies side.
But by the time Anderson, whose 703 Test wickets taken by any fast bowler in the format’s history, emerged from the Pavilion, only former West Indies captain Jason Holder was on hand to give the 41-year-old veteran a handshake.
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“We spoke about it before he came out to bat, that we were going to give him a guard of honour,” West Indies fast bowler Jayden Seales confessed at stumps.
“Obviously the run out took us all the way down to Swiss Cottage (the neighbouring district in northwest London to St John’s Wood, in which Lord’s is located), so it was pretty hard to do the guard of honour for the great man. Luckily, Jason caught up with him.”
Anderson didn’t even face a ball on Thursday, with England debutant Jamie Smith the last man out for 70.
“I think the biggest missed opportunity was not seeing Jimmy face one off their left-arm spinner,” Smith said.
“That’s the one regret about my innings. I’m a bit disappointed I couldn’t hit one more six to allow him his moment.
“It’s been an honour play alongside him in my first game. Everyone will miss him when he goes.
“If we’re in a position where he has to bat in the second innings I’d be a bit worried, so hopefully he can get wickets with the ball instead.”
Anderson, Ben Stokes and debutant fast bowler Gus Atkinson all took two wickets apiece as the West Indies collapsed to 6-79 at stumps on day two after slumping to 121 all out in their first innings of this three-match series.
The 41-year-old Anderson is currently on 703 Test wickets, meaning he won’t be able to overtake the career tally of Australian cricket icon Shane Warne, who claimed 708 victims.
Most Test wickets
800 – Muthiah Muralidaran (SL)
708 – Shane Warne (AUS)
703* – James Anderson (ENG)
619 – Anil Kumble (IND)
604 – Stuart Broad (ENG)