Old Trafford, July 5 (IANS) England pace bowler James Anderson reached 1,000 first-class wickets on Tuesday as he picked seven for 19 for Lancashire against Kent in a County Championship match here.

The 38-year-old, who has picked 617 Test wickets and is just three wickets short of surpassing Anil Kumble (619 wickets) and becoming the third highest wicket-taker in Tests behind Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan (800) and Aussie Shane Warne (708), helped his team bundle out Kent for 74 in just 26.2 overs.

Anderson, who had 995 wickets before the start of this match, removed his England teammate and opener Zak Crawley for a duck in the innings' first over and then got rid of the other opener, Jordan Cox for 1 in the innings' third over. He then ran through the lower and middle-order to put his team in command.

Last month, the pace bowler went past former England captain Alastair Cook as the most experienced Test cricketer for England. He has now played 162 Test matches.

England will be relying on his experience in the five-match Test series against India that begins next month in Nottingham.

The record for most first-class wickets rests with former England left-arm spinner Wilfred Rhodes, who has 4,204 wickets.

--IANS

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