STU’S OF THE BEST
Broad is a force of nature as he takes all Windies’ day three wickets and ends up one away from joining 500 club
STUART BROAD stands on the cusp of greatness after he and Rory Burns pushed England towards a likely victory in the next 48 hours.
Broad took all six Windies wickets to fall on day three across two innings and is now just one away from becoming England’s latest member of the bowling fortune 500 along with James Anderson.
With Burns and Dom Sibley reinforcing their grip on the top of the England order with a rare century opening stand of 114, there can surely be no escape for the Windies now.
A first innings lead of 172 thanks to Broad’s 6-31 was transformed into a fanciful target of 399 before he struck again with the 498th and 499th wickets of his career to leave the Windies 10-2 and in bits. Barring a catastrophe Burns and Sibley will be opening the batting in Australia next year where they will be out to emulate the reliability of Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss, as England’s most recent enduring partnership.
It has taken eight years for England to find the right combination at the top of the order with the bat, and they are desperate to make sure it won’t take as long with the ball whenever Broad and Anderson move on.
But Broad showed why there is no need to push new opening options with his best figures in England since his 8-15 in the 2015 Ashes.
He was inexplicably made to wait until the Windies had saved the follow-on before being asked to bowl an hour into play. But then he wrapped things up in a jiffy with a spell of 4-11 to show Chris Woakes and Jofra Archer how things are done.
Archer had to open up to complete his over from the day before, but Jason Holder played him with ease.
And Woakes was just as ineffective as the pair grabbed a combined 2-129, while Broad
RORY: WE’LL HANG ON..
and Anderson finished with 8-59 between them.
Archer and Woakes may well find themselves playing a more central role Down Under next year, but at home the leaders of the attack have not changed.
The Windies bowlers hauled themselves up for one final innings, and they were running on empty as England’s top three cashed in.
Holder and Shane Dowrich took blows on their thumb and chin respectively that caused them to go off.
Sub keeper Joshua Da Silva did an admirable job in Dowrich’s absence and the Trinidadian may well soon become the first white West Indian to play Test cricket since Brendan Nash in 2011. But spinner Rahkeem Cornwall finished the match wicketless.