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Anderson dissects rivalry with Kohli

The top-ranked Test players again loom as key figures when second England-India Test begins at Lord's on Thursday

Swing king James Anderson has opened up on his "fiercely competitive rivalry with Indian superstar Virat Kohli.

Anderson and Kohli are the top-ranked bowler and batsmen respectively in Test cricket, and are set to again go toe-to-toe from Thursday, when the second Test at Lord's begins.

While Anderson stole bragging rights in the first of the five-match series as England claimed victory by 31 runs in Birmingham, it was Kohli who shone individually, making 149 and 51 to be the standout batsman of the match.

"There's a fiercely competitive rivalry between myself and Virat Kohli — but also enormous mutual respect," Anderson wrote for The Sun newspaper.

"… I certainly loved the battle with him at Edgbaston. I felt good bowling to Virat and my plans worked well. I might have dismissed him a few times with some plays and misses plus a dropped catch.

"I've been told only 17 of his 149 runs in the first innings came off my bowling. But the fact is, I didn't get him out and he scored a century and a half-century. So I'm not getting carried away.

"In fact, it makes me even more determined to be on top form in the second Test at Lord's. I'll look at some videos to see if I can do anything different."

Anderson has dismissed Kohli five times in 13 Tests – a figure only Australia's Nathan Lyon can match – but the right-hander appears a different proposition in England this time around from the man who struggled to make an impression when India toured four years ago. In fact, his first-innings 149 was more than his entire runs tally (134 at 13.40) in 2014.

Anderson added that while the rivalry was fierce, it was also good-natured.

"The (first Test) was played in a good spirit and there's a lot of respect both ways between myself and Virat," he wrote.

"There was the odd smile when I bowled a good ball and the odd smile from him.

"I gave him a couple of freebies on his legs that he clipped for four and he said something like, 'That's not like you, giving me freebies'. It was teasing, really, leg-pulling. All in good spirit.

"A lot of teams see Lord's as a special place and up their games to try to get their names on the honours' board. So we'll have to raise our game, too."