Ashes 2010: Jimmy Anderson plays down injury after leading England rout

Jimmy Anderson, the leader of a rampant England pace attack that inflicted on Australia one of its most embarrassing days in Ashes history, made light of suggestions that he had been seen gingerly feeling his injured side. "It's probably just an itch," he said. That England are itching to win the Ashes is unmistakable, and it appears that Anderson is now showing physical manifestations of it. He admitted to a slight reminder of his injury as Australia collapsed to 98 all out, but nothing for England to fret unduly about as they seek to win at the MCG to go 2-1 up with one to play. "I did have a bit of stiffness but I would have to snap in half before I didn't play in the last two games," he said. At the start of the series, Anderson was supported by Stuart Broad and Steve Finn. By the fourth Test, this had become Chris Tremlett and Tim Bresnan. But this was England's most disciplined bowling display of the series as they hustled Australia into error. Much had been made of the MCG's drop-in pitches. They seemed to have dropped one in from Derby, and just to add to England's delight Melbourne provided some weather reminiscent of one of England's coldest county grounds in early May. Anderson, whose first wicket was the prize scalp of Mike Hussey, who has made 525 runs in the series, said: "It is a credit to the strength of the squad, especially Tim Bresnan who sat out the first three games, and then came in and bowled as well as he did. I thought Chris Tremlett bowled fantastically well both in Perth and here. "To bowl Australia out for under 100 and be 150-odd for nought at the end of the day is just unheard of. Today was the day when all those bits of luck came together. It was one of those days when everything came off. "It was a great toss to win. There is always a danger as a bowling unit that you get carried away but I thought we stuck at our task fantastically well. It was great pressure. To dismiss Australia so emphatically was an amazing feeling. "It wasn't really a swinging sort of day. We were just concentrating on trying to hit the seam and the ball did just enough. The grass helped and the overcast conditions. By the time they were seven or eight wickets down we felt the pitch was going pretty flat. We know how hard it will be to get 10 Australian wickets second time round."