England bowler Stuart Broad showed his prowess with the bat on Day 2 of the third Test against West indies - smashing 62 from 45 balls - to help the home side take command in the deciding final match.
Broad revealed that his coach Peter Moores told him to take a leaf out of Australian spin great Shane Warne’s book, and copy the batting technique he used during the dramatic 2005 Ashes.
“Mooresy came to me at the start of June and basically said: ‘Look at how Shane Warne played’,” Broad told Sky Sports. “Particularly in the Ashes when he scored some really useful runs. He was quite unorthodox, opening up different parts of the field, and so I did a bit of research as to how he went about it and decided that was quite a good way for me to go.”
Warne was part of the extraordinary resistance put up by the Australian tail during the Edgbaston Test in that series that ended with England winning by two runs. He had also scored a 122-ball 90 during the drawn third Test at Old Trafford.
“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,” said Broad. “I like going through the off side, so I was trying to keep my head out of the way, instead of falling over to bring in the lbw.
“I think I’m at my best when I’m just striking the ball. But one thing I’ve done recently is try and keep my head much stiller.
“As soon as the eyes start moving on delivery, everything feels much quicker and harder, so the work I’ve done recently to be as still as possible when the ball’s released, which gives you the best chance of striking it.
“It’s really hard to tell in the nets, you need match practice at it, but felt really comfortable today, having a clear gameplan of what to do. And I think the situation helped today. It was not one of those situations to try and hang around for two hours and see where we went. 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.”
Broad’s innings helped reach a total of 369 after they were 280-8. It was part of a revival in England’s batting after they found themselves on 122-4 on the first day with Ollie Pope and Jos Buttler’s counter attacking first to put on a 140-run stand taking them to 262.
