On this day: James Anderson becomes the first pacer to take 600 Test wickets

England’s veteran fast bowler James Anderson is undoubtedly one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time if not the greatest. Nicknamed the King of Swing, Anderson has plied his trade in the longest format of the game for nearly two decades, scalping an astonishing 658 wickets.

The Lancashire bowler eclipsed bowling icon Glenn McGrath’s tally of 563 wickets in 2018 to become the highest wicket-taking pacer of all time, and on this day in 2020, he added another feather in his cap by scalping his 600th wicket in Tests during the third Test against Pakistan.

The Ageas Bowl in Southampton hosted the third and final Test match between England and Pakistan. The hosts, leading the series 1-0, opted to bat first in the series finale and posted a mammoth total of 583 runs on the board, thanks to a magnificent double century by a young Zak Crawley.

Pakistan, in their reply, could muster only 273 runs on the back of a heroic innings from skipper Azhar Ali, who remained unbeaten on 141 as James Anderson wreaked havoc with the Dukes’ ball, scalping 5/56. But, the match will forever be remembered for what followed in the second innings.

Following on after their abysmal first innings, the visitors showed better fight and application against the English pace attack. But it wasn’t enough to keep the menacing Anderson from claiming his seventh wicket of the match when he dismissed the centurion of the first innings, Azhar Ali, etching his name in the cricketing folklore by becoming the first fast bowler ever to bag 600 wickets in Test history. He reached the milestone in record time, being the second fastest to the achievement, just six balls behind Muttiah Muralitharan.