‘Out’ Broad wins reprieve

STUART Broad still has a strong aversion to walking, only this time the controversial England star couldn’t be accused of cheating.

Once again, Broad stood his ground in the midst of celebrating Australians at a crucial moment in the first Test of an Ashes series.

But one crucial fact separated Cardiff from what happened at Trent Bridge two years ago — replays vindicated England’s pantomime villain this time, and the spotlight of integrity was instead focused on the Australian who claimed a low catch diving in from short leg — Adam Voges.

Broad didn’t want to go when umpire Marais Erasmus immediately gave him his marching orders on day two yesterday, as England’s tail kicked their total on to 430.

Only time will tell how important those extra runs — from being 7-343 overnight — will prove in the context of this match and series.

But Australia has its work cut out and, once again, Broad was the centrepiece.

The handy left-hander knew little about the rising Mitchell Johnson bullet that kicked up towards his arm pits and caught his bat. As the ball popped up, Voges dived in over the pitch at Broad’s feet and claimed what appeared to be a stunning catch.

Eventually Broad started heading for the pavilion, but on his way off, the third umpire decided to double check, and replays clearly showed the ball had touched the ground.

Broad turned back from the rope and the non-walking man survived again.

The boos emanated from the stands, but commentators leapt to Voges’s defence that the Australian short leg wasn’t to know whether or not the catch was fair.

“No problem with Australia there,” said former England captain Nasser Hussain.

“Australia has accepted this decision straight away ... it’s always Stuart Broad, isn’t it.”

Broad and Voges are friends from their days playing at Nottingham — and they appeared to immediately kiss and make up.

At Trent Bridge, the Broad non-walk cost Australia more than 100 runs.

Yesterday the damage was just 33 before his 52-run partnership with Moeen Ali (77) came to an end, beautifully caught behind by Brad Haddin off Nathan Lyon.

Mitchell Starc overcame his ankle injury to claim yet another five-wicket haul, though Australia will want their most dangerous bowler to sharpen up his consistency.

With Johnson brought back to earth by the conditions designed to deliberately blunt him, for Australia to take com- mand of this Ashes series, it desperately needs Starc to back up bigger and better in the second Test at Lord’s.

However, an ankle injury may have him in some doubt to play consecutive matches, after receiving extensive treatment before play last night.

Starc didn’t come out to warm up with teammates for the best part of 20 minutes after they’d started, and his initial practice balls were delivered under the watchful eye of team doctor Peter Brukner.

But there were no excuses from Starc has he dug in and removed danger man Ali and Jimmy Anderson to end England’s ominous first innings at 430 with personal figures of 5-114.

Starc was too loose at stages on day one and it allowed England to get off the hook early.

However, there’s not much Starc and his fellow fast bowlers can do about the lifeless quality of the wicket — which is likely to be repeated throughout the five-match series.

At lunch on day two, Australia was 0-26 in response, trailing by 404.