In the on-going series between England and New Zealand, veteran pace bowler James Anderson completed 650 wickets in Test cricket and also became the first bowler in the history of Test cricket to achieve the elusive feat.
Anderson reached the milestone on the fourth day of the second Test match at Trent Bridge. Anderson got the wicket of Kiwi stand-in skipper Devon Conway in the second innings of the game to reach the 650 wickets milestone.
Anderson is the first fast bowler to reach the elusive milestone, but is not the only bowler to do so. Sri Lanka's legendary off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan and the late Shane Warne also crossed the 650-wicket mark in their Test careers.
In the same game, Anderson achieved one more milestone. He became only the second cricketer in the game’s history to play 100 Test matches after crossing the age of 30.
Former England wicketkeeper Alec Stewart has played the most Test matches after crossing the age of 30, followed by Anderson, who played his 100th Test. Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid are at number three in this list with 95 Tests each while former Australia captain Steve Waugh is fourth in the list. Waugh played 92 Test matches after crossing the age of 30.
Only a few weeks ago, Anderson had said in an interview that he had thought about retiring from the game after being snubbed from the series against the West Indies.
“I definitely questioned it," he told reporters at an event in Leicester. "I asked myself, 'do I want to carry on?' And you do start questioning other things when something like that happens. Is it something that I've done around the group?,” he added.
But with good performances for Lancashire, Anderson made his way back to the team for the series against New Zealand and went on to achieve the 650-wicket milestone.
