Photos: England v NZ, third testKEY POINTS:
Nottinghamshire County cricket club members could have been forgiven for thinking they were witnessing the reincarnation of a former legend.
Gone were the perfectly manicured moustache and the shuffle at the top of the run-up but James Anderson did a passable impression of Sir Richard Hadlee. The only problem was, he was routing New Zealand, not spearheading them.
It is remarkable to think that, at the start of this home-and-away series, Anderson wasn't part of England's starting XI plans, now he seems a fixture.
It is worth recalling, too, the circumstances surrounding his recall. While Matthew Hoggard and Steve Harmison were toiling fruitlessly in Hamilton as England headed towards an ignominious defeat, Anderson was bowling his way back into form for Auckland. In the following test at Wellington he ran through New Zealand's top order in a way not dissimilar to what he did on day two at Trent Bridge.
Debate was fierce as to whether Auckland had betrayed the best interests of New Zealand cricket in allowing the extraordinary arrangement, or had simply done the logical thing as they were decimated by injury. Justin Vaughan, the New Zealand Cricket chief executive, left nobody in doubt as to his views, claiming it was ridiculous that Auckland should offer such largess to a touring squad. It might be an irrelevant observation, but there has been no suggestion from any of England and Wales' 18 counties that either Jeetan Patel or Michael Mason, both unused in the tests, should sharpen up by playing for them in the interim.
At Trent Bridge, Anderson, 25, was making the ball talk, particularly his first two wickets when, bowling wide on the crease, he conned Aaron Redmond and Brendon McCullum into thinking the ball was sliding down the legside only to straighten it up and take out off stump. But Anderson took the most satisfaction from the nick he induced off the bat of Jacob Oram. He said he'd been working hard at getting an outswinger going to left-handers, to become more of a threat when bowling to them. He has company there - a certain RJ Hadlee took some time before he became comfortable bowling to left-handers too.
