It used to be said that the shorter formats were a young man’s game.
Well, tonight at Headingley it was two 40-somethings that led the way in the first innings.
Anderson, 43, got it all started. England’s legendary swing king took the new ball, inevitably got the ball moving and after a tidy first five balls, was asked to bowl five more and struck twice.
The first got rid of left-hander Dawid Malan, who played for another in-swinger and skied the out-swinger Anderson sent down, allowing Buttler to come from behind the stumps to take the catch.
If that wasn’t the typical Anderson caught-behind dismissal, his second wicket was much more like it – a nip-backer that caught Dan Lawrence on the crease and was given lbw.
Anderson could have walked off with a four-for but for two dropped catches in the deep – Harry Brook and David Miller the two fortunate batters, showing Anderson can still cause problems for some of the world’s finest.
His figures of 2-30 were dented the ball after the second of those drops as Patel hammered him over square leg for six.
By that point, the 40-year-old had already dispatched Ish Sodhi into the stands as he managed to find his timing where just about every other Superchargers batter had failed on a stopping pitch.
Not bad for a man who admitted he was nervous because he’d been “sitting on a beach in Alicante” prior to his late call-up to The Hundred.
His blistering innings gave Superchargers a chance but unfortunately for Patel, Jos Buttler – a real youngster by comparison at 34 – also got the measure of the pitch to take Originals to victory.
