James Anderson makes T20 return after 3935 days, returns with career-best figures

English Test legend James Anderson showed he still has something about him with the white ball, even at the age of 42, taking 3-17 vs Durham.

It might be nearly 11 years since he last appeared in a competitive T20 cricket match, but when you’re James Anderson, everything you touch tends to turn to gold. Representing Lancashire in the T20 Vitality Blast, Anderson marked his return to the shortest format of the game with a performance that rolled back the clock, taking his best-ever figures of 3-17 in his team’s victory against Durham.

Jimmy Anderson celebrates a wicket with his Lancashire teammates in the Vitality Blast. (Getty Images)

Anderson hadn’t played T20 cricket since August 2014, a span of nearly 4000 days, and will celebrate a full year since his international retirement next month. However, even at the age of 42, Anderson looked like his old self, as he bowled three overs up front in the powerplay against Durham.

In those three overs at Riverside Ground at Chester-le-Street, Anderson accounted for the wickets of both Durham openers, Alex Lees and Graham Clark. Extracting plenty of movement and bite, Anderson took 2-15 in the powerplay, and returned in the 11th over to add a third wicket, dismissing Colin Ackermann to finish with figures of 3-17.

This was Anderson’s best figures in T20 cricket, improving on his figures of 3-23, which came in a T20I game for England against the Netherlands, all the way back in 2009. That was the last year in which Anderson represented England in T20 cricket.

Jimmy Anderson's T20 comeback in his 40s

Anderson took his first wicket in his second over, bouncing back having conceded a six and a four in the first three deliveries to dismiss Clark. Anderson dismissed the entirety of Durham’s top three, a bowling effort that ensured the hosts were only able to score 150 on the day. Anderson’s contribution was important, too, as a spirited Durham bowling effort meant that it took Lancashire the entirety of their 20 overs to chase down the target of 151.

It was a marked improvement on the last time Anderson played in a T20 game, which saw him concede 52 runs for no wickets against Warwickshire during the 2024 Blast final.

Anderson’s return saw Lancashire rise to a third win in a row to start off their Vitality Blast campaign, a perfect record thus far after already having beaten Worcestershire and dismantled Nottinghamshire in their first two matches of the season.