Anderson finished as the third-highest wicket-taker in Tests after Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan.
Veteran England pacer James Anderson played his last international match earlier today as England defeated West Indies in the first of the three-match Test series.
Anderson retires as the only pacer to pick up 700-plus Test wickets and will go down in history as one of the best fast bowlers of all time.
Notably, prior to the start of the Test, Anderson was on 700 scalps and needed 9 more to eclipse second-ranked Shane Warne, who had 708 wickets to his name.
However, Anderson could manage four wickets and finished as the third-highest wicket-taker in Tests after the Aussie spinner and topper Muttiah Muralitharan.
Out of those four wickets, Anderson picked three during the second West Indies innings.
The 41-year-old was on the verge of another one but he failed to grab that and soon after that, debutant Gus Atkinson sent Windies tailender Jayden Seales packing and wrapped up the match as England won the series opener by an innings and 114 runs.
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Following the match, during the post-match press conference, England skipper Ben Stokes revealed that Gus had apologised to the outgoing pacer for taking the last scalp of the match as Anderson was pushing hard to bid farewell to his illustrious career with one final wicket.
Stokes revealed, “Gus took that last wicket and he actually apologised to Jimmy and Jimmy just laughed at him and just went ‘no, mate’. You know someone who deserved their fairytale ending like Broady (Stuart Broad) got, to put a young teammate first, I think that says a lot about Jimmy Anderson the person.”
Ben Stokes reveals James Anderson’s reaction when Gus Atkinson apologised for taking the final wicket 😂 pic.twitter.com/ZunhcUVXXQ
— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) July 12, 2024
Atkinson, on the other hand, enjoyed a stellar debut, finishing with a total tally of 12 wickets from the match.
The 26-year-old first picked up a 7-wicket haul in the first innings and then followed it up with a fifer in the second.
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