England bowler Jimmy Anderson believes he can bowl better – despite claiming his best ever Ashes figures of six for 47 on day one of the third Test.

After failing to take a wicket during the second Test at Lords, the opening bowler was back to his best at Edgbaston as he ripped through the Australia batting line-up.

A spell after lunch saw him take four wickets for seven runs for just 19 balls, reducing the visitors to 94 for seven before they collapsed to 136 all out.

But after finishing the day with his best ever figures in an Ashes series of six for 47, the 33-year-old believes he can do better.

I dont know really, said Anderson when asked whether this was his best ever bowling performance for England.

I was happy with the way I performed and getting the wickets, but I think for me I feel like I can bowl better than that and we can bowl better than that as a group.

I think today we got edges, there were a few poor shots. So it is good that there is that possibility of us bowling better than that which is really exciting.

Obviously getting six-for against Australia in a crucial game will rank highly for me on that level, but from a specific bowling point of view I think I can bowl better than that.

England came into the third Ashes Test off the back of a crushing defeat at Lords, where Anderson finished wicketless.

Such a scenario had not happened to the bowler for more than 50 Tests and he admits it was good to find his form once again at Edgbaston.

What [a Test like Lords] does is make you more determined to get wickets and bowl better, Anderson added.

I knew I could have bowled better than I did at Lords so it was just a case of going away and working out what, if anything, was going wrong and trying to put it right.

My job is to take wickets. My job is to set the tone with the new ball – try and make it move if I can.

I didnt adjust well enough to the pitch and Lords so it was nice today to put the ball in the right area more often.