Anderson v Southee

Date released: 25 June 2008

Stephenson: took two New Zealander wickets recently for MCC Our fifth player v player analyses, compares strike bowlers, James Anderson of England and Tim Southee of New Zealand - ahead of the one-day international at Lord's on Saturday 28 June.

MCC Head of Cricket, John Stephenson is a former England international. His county career took in spells at Essex and Hampshire, as captain.

Having already examined the captains, Stephenson gives his opinion on two bowlers: England’s James Anderson and New Zealand’s Tim Southee:

James Anderson

Bowling stats - 90 ODIs; 5 at Lord's

^{Stats from CricInfo's StatsGuru}

Anderson: 'The definition of mercurial' It seems odd to be comparing a veteran of 90 ODIs (Anderson) with a player only making his first steps onto the ODI circuit (Southee).

Anderson's played more ODIs at Lord's than Southee has ODIs in total!

However, both of them are playing the strike-bowler role for their respective teams so bare the comparison in their role, if not their experience.

Anderson is the very definition of mercurial. One minute he can bend the ball like a banana and looks totally unplayable. The next he gets line and length horribly wrong and gets hit all over the park.

He's a rarity in a bowler though, in that he can swing the ball both ways. He has a good range of options available to him as well, thanks to his experience.

Anderson doesn't have the frightening pure pace of a Steve Harmison or a Shoaib Akhtar but his skill with the swinging ball and use of the seam more than make up for that.

Batting-wise he won't trouble the scorers much but he's decent in the field and will throw himself at everything, which is what you want in one-day cricket especially.

Tim Southee

Bowling stats - 4 ODIs; 0 at Lord's

^{Stats from CricInfo's StatsGuru}

Southee: Celebrates another England victim Southee is another 'bat dangler' but, like Anderson, he's not in the team for his batting.

That said, anyone who saw his Test debut in Napier when he scored 77* (a game in which he also took five wickets) will know he can bat a bit.

Southee's had a bit of a rapid rise through the ranks in New Zealand. He looked a bit overawed at first, during the Test here at Lord's in May.

His captain, Daniel Vettori stuck with him though and the reward was five first innings wickets.

He's been a thorn in the England one-day team's side too, taking wickets in every match of the series so far - something Anderson hasn't done.

His 4/38 in Bristol played a big part in the Kiwi's win there, as he tore through England's middle order, getting Paul Collingwood, Ravi Bopara, Owais Shah and Tim Ambrose.

Southee's another exponent of swing bowling. He doesn't quite have the rerpetoire Anderson does, but that will come with experience.

What he does have he uses intelligently, mixing up his length to keep the batsmen guessing but without giving away cheap runs too often.

The verdict

It may surprise you to know I'm going to pick the Kiwi this time.

James Anderson is a brilliant bowler - I'd have him in my Test team every time. The brilliant spells he can produce in a Test match can change a game.

In one-day cricket though, when every run counts, his mercurial nature can be too costly. In Test cricket you can afford to go for a few runs, so long as you get wickets. In one-dayers you don't have that luxury.

Southee's still very young but he's already turning potential into wickets, 10 in the series so far. I wouldn't be in the least surprised to see him revelling in the famous Lord's slope and taking more wickets here on Saturday.

What do you think? Would you pick Southee over Anderson? If not, why not? Send us your comments and opinions, we'll publish the best ones: live@lords.org

Next up

In our final analysis MCC Head Coach, Clive Radley compares two more batsmen, including an old friend...

Read it exclusively, on Lords.org on Friday.