Ashes 2013: Stuart Broad lifts England to new Ashes heights
Last updated on .From the section Cricket
Test cricket does like to tease, to suddenly change pace from stroll to sprint, to shock and to awe.
Yet even those attuned to its contrary charms were left bewildered and exhilarated by the manner that England, from nowhere, stole this fourth Test away from Australia late on Monday evening and with it a fourth Ashes series in five.
In less than two hours, from a position of strength from which they had every chance of striking for victory, Australia lost their final eight wickets for 56 runs.
Yet this was more than a mere collapse. On a day when the momentum had been grabbed by one side, filched by the other and then snatched back in breathless fashion, this was capitulation on fast-forward, a death-dive from sunny skies.
But it was not suicide. With a blitzkrieg burst of six wickets for 20 runs in 45 mesmerising deliveries, Stuart Broad produced one of the great spells in Ashes history. In a series of uneven quality, victory was sealed with wonderful skill.
And it came from near crisis. On 120-1 at tea, chasing 299 for the win, Australia looked comfortable. An hour later, 168-2 and with David Warner carting an old ball all around the Riverside, England looked lost. With the run-rate at four an over, we calculated, Australia would be within 50 runs by stumps.
Enter Broad. Exit logic.
This is not yet a great England side. Yet when they are under the most severe pressure, they have the invaluable ability of finding a great performance.
This one came so rapidly and so dizzyingly that it was almost impossible to fix in the mind, so the timeline of wickets is worth preserving for accuracy as much as posterity:
5.44pm: Warner. 6.10: Clarke. 6.22: Smith. 6.29: Watson. 6.39: Haddin. 6.59: Harris. 7.14: Lyon.
Nine in a session, with a soft ball, on a pitch doing little? Tube trains have left central London in rush-hour at a slower rate than batsmen departed the middle.
That it took another 26 minutes for the final act to play out felt like an age, not least because the encroaching darkness threatened to postpone and thus poop the party.
Broad has previous in these sorts of cluster-bomb spells. In the last Ashes series in England it was his 5-37 on the second day at The Oval that blew Australia away; two summers ago, his 6-46 against India at Trent Bridge included both a hat-trick and five wickets in 16 balls without a run conceded. Earlier this season, against New Zealand at Lord's, he took 7-44 in 11 overs to win the first Test for his side.
Seldom can you see them coming. In the previous 11 Ashes innings he had bowled in before this Test, he had bagged a paltry nine wickets at a cost of 60 runs apiece.
Here? 11-121 in the match, not only his best ever Test return but the best match figures for an England bowler in an Ashes Test since Phil Tufnell took 11-93 at The Oval in 1997, and the second best since Fred Trueman took 11-88 at Headingley back in 1961.
How? So carefully computer-analysed and closely understood are the actions of modern fast bowlers that there should be an easy technical explanation for it, yet these tornados from Broad blow in like some unquantifiable force of nature.
His captain Alastair Cook spoke afterwards about Broad just clicking, his three weapons of pace, movement and control combining rather than clashing to make him almost unplayable. As to why the storm struck today rather than a week ago, or at Lord's last month, no-one seems to know.
What Broad does have, sometimes to his detriment, is the sort of aggression that defines the very best of his trade. He also has the self-confidence to believe that the mojo can take hold from nowhere.
Tim Bresnan might have pushed the first domino over with the brilliant angled delivery he produced to find Warner's outside edge, but it was Broad who kept them falling.
His delivery to bowl captain Michael Clarke was the moment when England first truly sensed that they could take control, his brutish short one that forced a rattled Steve Smith to play on the confirmation.
Even then it seemed certain that the match would go into its fifth day. Broad, bowling full and fast, deemed different.
With this 74-run triumph, England have now won five of their six Tests this summer, and seven of their last 11 without losing once.
More poignantly for those who have suffered with them over many bleak years of Australian domination, they have also levelled the overall Ashes balance at 31 series wins apiece.
Not since 1985 and David Gower's sun-kissed summer have they won three Tests in a home Ashes series; with one more to come this time around, they have the chance at The Oval to do what no England side has ever done and win four Ashes Tests in a series in this country.
If it is giddy stuff, it has come about in giddy fashion.
England have played well only in bursts. But those bursts have been electrifying, and they have been enough to open an unbridgeable chasm between the sides.
Comments
Join the conversation
Many congratulations on a well-deserved Ashes triumph.
Sensational match and a fabulous advertisement for test cricket.
Denial: not just a river in Egypt. Here you are watching your side getting hosed, this time in a match they looked like winning for once, and you're still deluding yourself into thinking you're in any sort of a position to mouth off. McGrath and Warne are gone, a few other great performers too, and you've got nothing left. How'd we do in India a few months back? How'd Australia do?
Don't buy this 'England won it out of nowhere' nonsense. We were behind after day 1 but still in it, fought back by bowling Aus out for 270 (still in it), Bell's ton took us to parity and Bresnan/Swann took us ahead in the game (299 rarely chased in 4th innings). Aus upper order gave them a chance but once we got the breakthrough the more likely result happened.
Add in that Prior is the best batsman-keeper in the world and Bell has finally come of age.
No, not everyone will fire at once every time but if one doesn't another generally will. It's the mark of a great side.
I will offer redress for the sake of being magnanimous. We have a bigger population but NZ is tiny and they spank everyone at rugby which floors your argument. Also the rest of our population study, invent, cure, solve, research, entertain, sing, dance because they can. We're not perfect and neither are you but right now we are better at sport than you. It's great.
I wish he could b a little more consistent between these spells but if he can win a test single-handedly once a series it is worth having him around
Bell - Shoe in for man of the series providing no 300+ or 15 wickets in a game performances
Bresnan - Love having him around, very useful cricketer
Bless.
If you use the word "stole" you suggest robbery, which is not only an insult to Broad , Bresnan and Bell but sub consciously feeds the bruised Aussie ego into believing they've suffered some kind of injustice.
Have a drink of water and a lie down, you're delirious. Bankster? Pleb? Delusions of grandeur? Have a word with yourself. How about you go look up where Khawaja and Ahmed were born you plank.
Not sure I agree, if you are consistent teams work you out, the real plus about this team is you have no idea where the winning performance is coming from!
Remember the Aussie comment after the first test, "England rely on Anderson?"
Lets keep it unpredictable, who is next up I wonder?