Veteran England fast bowler James Anderson said that the way his team finished Day 2 off the Boxing Day Test was dissapointing but refused to be drawn into commenting on another top order failure from his team. Anderson was key to England fighting back with the ball on Day 2, finishing with his second best figures in Australia of 4/33 but the visitors then lost four wickets in the final hour.

“Disappointing,” said Anderson of how events played out. “Firstly, on the bowling front, I thought we did really well to stick at our task throughout the day. We talked a lot about the lengths we want to hit and the pressure we want to create, and I thought we were really good at that, created a lot of chances, put a lot of balls in the right areas, and got the rewards.

“We were pretty pleased with 260. If we’re being honest, in the first innings we should have got somewhere near that if not more. It certainly felt possible on that wicket. And we knew it’s a new-ball wicket as well, it felt like it did less as the ball got older, as the day went on and some more sun got on the pitch it felt like it did a lot less. So we knew that last 12 overs was going to be tough, with the new ball, but even so to lose four wickets was really disappointing.”

Australia started the day on 61/1 after England were all out for 185 in the first innings. While Anderson took four, the rest of the England bowlers also got at least a wicket each. Ollie Robinson and Mark Wood took two wickets each while all-rounder Ben Stokes and spinner Jack Leach took one each.

England then lost opener Zak Crawley and Dawid Malan off consecutive deliveries from Mitchell Starc after which Haseeb Hameed fell to Scott Boland in the very next over. They finished the day with captain Joe Root on 12 with Stokes at the other end. Anderson admitted that Starc and Australia captain Pat Cummins were “outstanding”.

“I thought the spell from Starc and (Pat) Cummins was outstanding, but that’s what you expect, they are world-class bowlers and they have done it in Test cricket for many, many years. So it shouldn’t take anyone by surprise that they bowled like that. But yeah, disappointed to lose four wickets in that period,” said Anderson.