The Boxing Day Test and its 88,172 opening-day spectators has not received the pitch its stage deserves, according to James Anderson. The England vice-captain picked up one of the three wickets that England managed to take on the first day on a slow drop-in surface. He dismissed Australia’s centurion David Warner, his 519th Test wicket, which took him level with Courtney Walsh in second place on the all-time list of fast bowlers behind Glenn McGrath, who took 563. People want to see entertaining cricket, especially in an iconic Test match like the Boxing Day TestWickets were hard to buy, but — Warner’s brilliant show in the morning session aside — runs did not flow either. Having raced to 102 without loss at lunch, just 142 followed in the final two sessions at the funereal rate of…

Source: The Times December 26, 2017 12:00 UTC