Stuart Broad said that modelling his technique on Shane Warne has helped him improve his batting after his 62 on the second day of England’s third Test against West Indies at Emirates Old Trafford.
He credited Nottinghamshire CCC head coach Peter Moores for helping him figure out that the Australia leg-spinner, who holds the record for having scored the most Test runs without a century, would make a good example for him to follow.
“I’ve done a couple of tactical and technical things with Peter Moores back at Notts which has helped me set up a better gameplan and I stuck to that today,” he said on Sky Sports Cricket. “Mooresy came to me at the start of June and basically said, ‘Look at how Shane Warne played. Particular the ’05 Ashes he scored some really useful runs, quite unorthodox, he opened up different parts of the field.’
“I looked at that, did a bit of research as to how he went about it and decided that was quite a good way for me to go, open up the off-side, I quite like to hit the ball through the off side, try and keep my head out the way of falling over to bring the lbw in. It’s hard to tell in the nets, you need match practice at it, but it felt pretty comfortable today.
“I think I’m at my best when I’m just striking the ball. One thing I’ve tried to do recently is keep my head much stiller. I think as soon as the eyes start moving on delivery everything feels much quicker and harder so the work I’ve done recently is just to get a little bit of movement in a bit earlier and be as still as possible when the ball is released, which gives you the best chance of striking. I’m not someone who’s going to be able to leave loads of balls and bat 100 balls for 20. I want to be able to score and those situations like today suit me really.”
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Broad also felt acknowledged an attacking gameplan which suited the situation and conditions England found themselves in for his success.
“It was good fun,” he said. “It was a pitch that, my decision was to try and take the bowlers off the top of off-stump, because we saw it was nipping from length. I wanted to strike the ball and move the scoreboard forward.
“It’s strange in this bio-secure environment, we’ve not really had much match practice with the batters, the bowlers. One of my last Test innings at the Wanderers I played in this style and really enjoyed it with Mark Wood, we put on maybe 100 or just less than that and I just tried to think back of how that went because I didn’t have any match practice recently to rely on.
“Having a clear gameplan of what to do, I think the situation helped today, it was not one of those situations to try and hang around for a few hours and see where we went, it was one of those situations to try and take the attack to the bowling attack and it suited that style.”
Broad’s assault was almost an historic one. After 14 balls, he had 27 runs, with Ian Botham’s record for the fastest Test fifty by an Englishman, which took 28 balls, in his sight. However, he slowed slightly as he approached the milestone, eventually bringing up his half-century off 33 balls, the joint-third fastest for England.
“I shouldn’t have slowed down at the end!” Broad said. “I should have stopped knocking ones! Batting is such a frustrating, weird thing. If you’d told me this morning I’d get 10, I’d be pretty happy. I’d probably shake your hand and take it. Then you get 60 and you start kicking the ground that you’ve not got 70. It’s the weirdest thing in the world. It’s great to have got 60 but I’m annoyed I hit a full toss straight down deep midwicket’s throat now.”
[breakout id=”0″][/breakout] It wasn’t all about Broad, of course. He was ably partnered by Dom Bess for their partnership of 76, and credited the younger man for his part in their stand. “It was great to be batting with Bessy,” Broad said. “I thought Bessy did brilliantly because it sometimes can be tricky when someone’s playing a bit like a headless chicken, you can lose your game plan at the other end. I thought Bessy did beautifully to continue with his style and to be there at the end.”
