Broad Bats at Lord’s
I have just witnessed Stuard Broad score his maiden Test Century in the 4th Test between England and Pakistan at Lord’s, and seen the broadest of smiles match a very broad bat.
In keeping with some of the finest players to have graced the game at Lord’s, Stuart used the full face of the bat to maximum effect throughout his wonderful innings. He played some breathtaking strokes which found the boundary with ease, and wrested the initiative from Pakistan’s bowlers in the process.
England’s cherub-faced opening bowler played like a proper middle order batsman, revealing the childhood batting ability which saw him open the batting for Oakham School, and Leicestershire’s age-group teams. He will return to the home dressing room tonight, safe in the knowledge that his name will soon be inscripted on the Lord’s Honours Board, amongst Hammond, Hutton, Compton, Cowdrey, Boycott, Gooch, Gower, Botham and other greats of English Cricket, who have also scored centuries at ‘The Home of Cricket’ for England.
Stuart’s presence on those famous boards will be a sense of great pride in their family, as father Chris, never managed to achieve the distinction himself at Lord’s, despite scoring 6 Test centuries, including 3 in a row, during England’s successful Ashes Tour of 1986/7. Today Stuart and Chris became the first father and son combination to have scored Test centuries for England.
More poignantly, today will be a special moment for a family in mourning, as Stuart lost his stepmother Miche, (Chris’ second wife) to motor neurone disease only a few weeks ago. On Tuesday, the Broad family hosted a special fund-raising dinner for the Motor Neurone Disease charity in The Long Room at Lord’s, which touched heaerts and raised important awareness of a terrible illness.
I imagine Stuart’s performance has touched many more hearts today, and has gone some way to assisting in the family’s healing process.
His century is the best performance (in terms of number of runs scored), by an England number nine batsman, surpassing Gubby Allen’s 122 v New Zealand, also at Lord’s in 1931, and only the third Test century scored by an England number nine. He still has some way to go to beat the world record score by a number nine batsman, which is 173 by wicket-keeper Ian Smith for New Zealand versus India, in 1990.
Enland were in strife at 47-5 (with the unique event of England’s number 4,5, and 6 batsmen all making ‘ducks’), and 102-7, but Broad and Trott have navigated their team away from disaster, and a potential match loss and a possible drawn Test Series, by mixing attacking instint with judicious strokeplay. Pakistan’s 18 year-old left-arm opening bowler Mohammed Amir took 6 England wickets to become the youngest ever player to be on the Lord’s Honours Boards, which record players scoring centuries or taking 5 wickets in an innings or ten wickets in a match in a Lord’s Test. Remarkably, some of the most famous names have been unable to write their names into Lord’s history, despite many attempts. They include Shane Warne, Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar!
As Stuart Broad entered the arena at 102-7, he was probably focused on surviving his first ball and trying to build a small partnership with Jonathan Trott to avert disaster. To end the day on 125 not out and Trott on 149 not out as part of an undefeated partnership of 244, with England clsong in the ascendancy on 346-7 a few hours later. As he reflects on his dream performance, he will never forget the 27th August for as long as he lives.
For good measure, when he looks at Cricket history, he will realise that his special day also co-incides with the birth of two others who have displayed a broad bat throughout their careers. Sir Donald Bradman (1908) and Mohammed Yousuf (1974). Yousuf is in the opposition at Lord’s today, and is best known for his world record-breaking year of 2006, when he scored 1788 runs with nine centuries in the calendar year to beat the great Sir Vivian Richards’ 30 year record, while Bradman’s feats and Test average of 99.94 speaks for itself.
To add further gloss to Stuart’s special day is that on the very same day in 1973, the greatest all-round cricketer ever, Sir Garry Sobers signed off his Test career at Lord’s with a century and a world record in Tests of 6 catches in an innings to go with his century (the last of his 26 Test centuries) which led to huge win by an innings and 225 runs. His Lord’s performance was the most stylish of farewells to the iconic venue by the world’s best and most stylish cricketer.
Sir Garry finsihed with 8,032 Test runs at an average of 57.78, and also took 109 catches in his 93 Tests, to go with 235 Test wickets.
In reality, Stuart Broad is only beginning his career at international level despite his success in England colours since his debut three years ago. He may evolve into a genuine all-rounder over time himself. If he continues to drive the ball through, and over the covers like he did today, and pull to the legside with a swivel off his back foot, he may draw further comparisons with the greatest cricketer who ever lived.
