Broad stands amid the wreckage
Sifting for positives is a tricky business for any team faced with a 343-run first innings deficit, but Stuart Broad’s career-best haul temporarily lifted English spirits on Saturday. There will be no medals struck or public holidays commissioned in honour of Broad’s 6 for 91 – coming, as it did, in a match Australia are expected to win comfortably inside three days – but it will be remembered as England’s sole act of defiance on a day of otherwise meek surrender.Broad cut a forlorn figure when he addressed the media after play, eyes low and voice soft. With England teetering at 82 for 5 in their second innings, still trailing Australia’s first innings total by 261 runs, the England all-rounder could summon little enthusiasm when discussing his most prolific outing as a bowler in Test cricket.”As any bowler knows, it’s hard to build pressure and get wickets when you’re giving the odd bad ball away,” he said in a quiet, resigned monotone. “We know wickets come with momentum and pressure and as soon as you give that release ball you’re not as effective. I probably gave less release balls in this innings which helped me get six wickets, but obviously I would have liked to have picked those six wickets up in a slightly different scenario.”Broad’s Ashes campaign had been a humbling experience prior to Headingley, yielding just six wickets at 61 from three largely ineffectual Tests. His most significant contributions had come from the No. 8 position, most notably his 55 at Edgbaston last week, but none were enough to ease the pressure on his place in the team. If confidence could be charted on Hawk-Eye, Broad’s would have been well below the knee roll.The focus on Broad was all the more acute at Headingley after Andrew Flintoff was ruled out prior to the match and James Anderson sustained a hamstring strain while batting on Friday. Teamed up with the unpredictable Steve Harmison and inexperienced Graham Onions, Broad, suddenly, found himself thrust into a position of seniority he had seldom occupied.The early exchanges were unconvincing. Set upon by Ricky Ponting, Broad was punished on several occasions for straying short and found little of the pitch or atmospheric assistance so heavily exploited by the Australian quicks the previous session. To his credit, he quickly adapted his gameplan and was rewarded for hitting a fuller length with the wickets of Ponting and Michael Hussey, both trapped leg-before. Broad closed out his opening spell with three consecutive maidens to Michael Clarke and Marcus North. The battle was on.Clarke and North had the better of Broad in his second spell, in which he offered too much width, although his task had been made immeasurably more difficult by the injury to Anderson. Matt Prior informed the media the previous evening that Anderson was unaffected by the hamstring strain, but his ginger movements in the field and constricted bowling suggested otherwise. In all, Anderson managed 18 overs in the first innings – nine fewer than Broad – at the heavy price of five-per-over.Broad’s final spell was the most entertaining of the innings, if not for technical precision than pure, frenetic action. First Mitchell Johnson, then Stuart Clark took the long handle to the England all-rounder – the latter batsman at one stage plastering him for consecutive sixes over mid-wicket in an over that cost 16 runs.Broad’s reversion to a back-of-a-length strategy might not have looked pretty in the runs column, but it did have the desired effect in dislodging Johnson and North. Clark and Peter Siddle, meanwhile, were bowled to fuller deliveries, completing a fine spell that, sadly, will have little impact on the match.