Anderson piles praise on crafty Crawley

Jimmy Anderson praised a ‘brilliantly intelligent’ innings from Zak Crawley as 13 wickets fell on a helter-skelter first day of the second Test against south Africa in manchester. england’s out-of-form opener reached stumps on a careful but crucial 17 not out as Ben stokes’s team — desperate to hit back after last week’s innings defeat at Lord’s — reached 111 for three in reply to the tourists’ 151 all out. Jonny Bairstow was unbeaten on 38. ‘i thought Zak did brilliantly for someone whose output has not been as good as he’d want it to be,’ said Anderson. ‘Today he read the situation and played exactly how we needed him to play. it was very tricky against that new ball. it started reversing as well after about 15 overs, and the way he played allowed Jonny to play his natural game. ‘i thought that was a brilliantly intelligent innings from him.’ earlier, Anderson had taken three for 32 from 15 high-class overs on his home ground, having become the first player ever to play 100 Tests in his own country. He even found himself on a hat-trick bowling from the end that bears his name after trapping simon Harmer and Keshav maharaj lbw — only to spear his next delivery to Kagiso rabada down the leg side. Anderson, who has a one-day international hat-trick to his name but is yet to take one in 174 Tests, admitted: ‘stuart Broad was at mid-on, and came over and said, “When i took my two Test hattricks, i tried to go full and straight”. ‘i tried to do that, but got my line horribly wrong. i got a bit giddy and tried to bowl it a bit too quick.’ Anderson said it had been a ‘good toss to lose’ after dean elgar chose to bat under grey mancunian skies, but rabada — who took the key wicket of Joe root — defended the move on the basis that south Africa had picked maharaj and Harmer. ‘Generally if you play two spinners, you want to bat first,’ he said. ‘The wicket is getting drier by the second. it was the right decision.’