IT’S BROAD SMILES ALL ROUND
Stuart stars with bat and ball as he helps take control with Anderson
RARELY can a bowler have celebrated a wicket that had not yet even been given quite as spectacularly as Stuart Broad yesterday — right fist pumping wildly when he trapped Roston Chase palpably lbw. But then no-one has mastered the ‘celebrappeal’ quite like Broad.
Certainly, there was little doubt Richard Kettleborough would raise his finger when Broad eventually turned to face him. Even Chase himself appeared to walk before the umpire confirmed his fate.
It was the moment England’s superiority over West Indies in this deciding Test was emphatically underlined.
And it was the moment the junior member of their re-united old bowling firm had again shown that any reports of his demise were greatly exaggerated.
What a comeback Broad has made since he was left fuming about being omitted from the first Test, which England lost without him. And what rude health his longstanding partnership with Jimmy Anderson still appears to be in, despite all efforts to separate them.
The pair of warriors took four wickets between them on the second day of this third Test to leave West Indies down but not yet quite out on 137 for six, still 232 behind. It ended any doubts about their enduring effectiveness as bowlers, at least in English conditions.
Chris Silverwood, the England coach, said in the build-up to this game he wanted to forget rest and rotation and play his best attack. And Broad and Anderson, moving ever closer to 1,100 Test wickets between them, still belong in that number. England deny there has ever been a policy to play only one of the big two at any one time. But it certainly looked that way when Broad was left out at the Ageas Bowl and then Anderson missed the second Test here at the home ground he knows so well.
In fairness, England have long known they need the extra pace Jofra Archer and Mark Wood can bring if they are to have any chance of beating Australia in their own back yard.
They have to manage their rich bowling resources while planning for the future as they build towards the next Ashes in 18 months.
But we are still — as Joe Root said about Ben Stokes after the second Test — in the presence of greatness, with Broad and Anderson bowling as well as ever and West Indies struggling to cope yesterday with their movement, control and supreme skill.
There was a reward, too, for Archer, making an impressive return after his absence from the s econd Test and i t s di f f i cult aftermath. He took the wicket of John Campbell with an absolute brute of a ball and Chris Woakes flattened Jermaine Blackwood’s stumps.
But the day belonged to Broad — dismissing Kraigg Brathwaite in his first over before returning to claim Chase — and Anderson, who sent back Shai Hope and Shamarh Brooks after switching to the end at Old Trafford that bears his name.
It was Broad — who else? — who had earlier turned the complexion of this second day and the Test to decide the last ever Wisden Trophy as he produced a display of clean hitting with the bat that appeared to have been consigned to his history.
How it was needed, too, after West Indies had made such a brilliant start. Kemar Roach and Shannon Gabriel forgot about the fatigue suffered while playing in three back- to- back Tests to take four England wickets between them in 22 balls.
England began the day targeting another score of 400- plus and expecting a first home Test century for Ollie Pope and a much needed second hundred at this level for Jos But t l e r. But b o t h o v e r n i g h t batsmen were quickly blown away.
Pope had been reprieved when Rahkeem Cornwall s pi l l e d a straightforward slip chance, but he could not take advantage and was comprehensively bowled by the next ball he received from the r e j u v e n a t e d Gabri e l wi t h o u t adding to his overnight 91.
Then Roach became only the ninth West Indian to reach 200 Test wickets — and the first since Curtly Ambrose 26 years ago — when he bowled Woakes, promoted to No7 in a bowler-heavy England line-up.
That is some achievement by
Roach, who started off as an outa nd- o ut f a s t bowler but has reinvented himself to rely as much on guile as pace.
Now his figures compare favourably with one of the greatest of them all, Andy Roberts.
When Buttler and Archer fell to sharp, low slip catches by Jason Holder, England had collapsed from 258 for four overnight to 280 for eight.
But they were to be rescued by the most unlikely batting figure. It was here at Old Trafford six years ago that Broad was struck such a nasty blow in the face by a delivery from India’s Varun Aaron that he later admitted to having nightmares about it. His batting has never really recovered.
In truth, a man who looked like becoming a genuine all- rounder when he made a big century in the
tainted Test against Pakistan at Lord’s in 2010 had already gone into batting decline and the damage inflicted by Aaron merely accelerated the process.
Since then, Broad has had rare moments in the sun with the bat but nothing like yesterday when his hitting was so spectacular he reached 50 off only 33 balls, equalling the third-fastest Test half century in England’s history.
It started when Broad backed away to leg and slogged Roach for six towards where the giant party stand that is usually here would have loudly acclaimed the strike in happier times. But there was plenty of orthodox hitting, too, as Broad struck nine fours in his 62.
Thanks to Broad, England had been catapulted somewhere close to the figure they would have hoped to reach when the day started.
And their total of 369 all out soon proved to be comfortably enough. West Indies were on the ropes by the time another frustratingly premature c l o s e c a me a bout because of bad light while the floodlights shone down.
It will take a prolonged deluge of Manchester rain over the next three days now to save the tourists — and to keep Broad and Anderson at bay.