Stuart Broad rips through Australia

Stuart broad’s Wikipedia page rightly says ,’He is a god who was sent to destroy all Australians sent before him’. Stuart Broad scalped eight wickets as Australia were embarrassed on the first day of the fourth Ashes test as the visitors fell for just 60 inside 19 overs. The shocking performance led to many records being achieved or narrowly missed.

In the absence of England’s bowling spearhead James Anderson, out due to injury, Broad went into the test with added responsibility on his shoulders and delivered from the very beginning and returned with his career best figures of 8 for 15 which he managed in just 9.3 overs.

Broad became the fifth Englishman to take 300 test wickets when he dismissed Chris Rogers on just the third delivery of the day, which also happened to be his first duck – and within half an hour, Australia was 6 down with just 29 on the board. Broad was brandishing the 6.1 overs old ball after he took a 5 wicket haul.

Broad bowled at an inviting length, teasing the batsmen. He swung the ball on a newly laid damp Trent Bridge pitch and placed many close in catchers who did the rest .The close in cordon effected 9 out of the 10 wickets. Australia’s mistake was that they went hard on the ball, and in the process, nicked the ball to the close in catchers. Australia has been unable to adjust to the English conditions. Broad routed the Australian batting line up as their batsmen played with hard hands.

Clarke demoted himself to no 5, but it went in vain . When he departed, Broad had 5 wickets under his belt giving away just 19 runs. At this stage the English keeper and the 4 slips, all had a catch to their name. Shaun Marsh who was playing his first match of the tour was Australia’s 3rd duck in the top 4. The collapse had started.
Steven Finn got Peter Nevill’s wicket and Mark Wood took David Warner and joined the party. The Mitchell’s did show some resistance but it was Stuart Broad’s day.

Broad finished with an astonishing eight wickets for just 15 runs to equal Fred Trueman’s record of 307 test wickets for England. Australia bagged three ducks in the top four for the first time in any Test since the Brisbane game in 1950, and 4th time ever, continuing their dismal performance with the bat.

England won a good toss, with English captain Alastair Cook asking his boys to regain the ashes after their whitewash by the Aussies, 20 months ago and etch their names in the history forever to which the players responded very well.