England’s Stuart Broad (right) celebrates the wicket of Australia’s Steven Smith on day one of the fourth Ashes Test at Trent Bridge yesterday. (AFP)

AFP/Nottingham

There was no prouder spectator at Trent Bridge as Stuart Broad took eight wickets to reduce Australia to 60 all out on the first day of the fourth Ashes Test than the England paceman’s father, Chris Broad.
Broad’s stunning haul of eight for 15 in 9.3 overs on his Nottinghamshire home ground saw Australia bowled out in a historically low 18.3 overs—the shortest completed first innings in the 138-year history of Test cricket.
After England captain Alastair Cook won the toss in overcast conditions, there was drama right from the third ball of the match when fast-medium bowler Broad had Chris Rogers caught at first slip by Cook for nought for his 300th Test wicket.
“He only wanted one, it’s just being greedy isn’t it?” Chris Broad told BBC Radio’s Test Match Special.
“He chatted to me a couple of days prior and said ‘all I want is one’. I was a bit concerned he was too focused on getting to 300,” added Broad senior, himself a former Nottinghamshire and England opening batsman.
“If you’re not focused on your action and rhythm you can search for wickets...but to get one in the first over was a release,” explained Broad, now an International Cricket Council match referee.
“Maybe it was meant to be that he comes to Trent Bridge and gets it here,” said Broad senior, who scored three hundreds in England’s 1986/87 Ashes series win in Australia.
Broad’s haul, which saw him draw level with England fast bowling great Fred Trueman’s career Test tally of 307 wickets, was all the more impressive as England were without the injured James Anderson.
England’s all-time leading Test bowler with 413 wickets, Anderson was ruled out with a side injury suffered in the team’s eight-wicket win in the third Test at Edgbaston last week.

‘OUTSTANDING’
Former England captain Michael Vaughan said Broad’s place in Ashes history was now assured.     
“Stuart Broad has just put himself into Ashes history,” Vaughan said.  
“We all thought how are they going to cope without Jimmy Anderson and look what has happened.
“You are looking at the manner of the dismissals, Broad, (Steven) Finn and (Mark) Wood put the ball in the right area and I don’t think Australia played with any kind of confidence and the message soon spread. It was a minefield.
“Their head positions were so far off the line of the ball and the seam bowlers were just licking their lips and waiting for that error and they kept falling for it,” added Vaughan, a former top-order batsman who led England to Ashes glory in 2005.
Meanwhile, Australia great Shane Warne said England deserved credit for maintaining their accuracy in front of a 17,000 capacity crowd.
“England were just absolutely superb, from the moment they won that toss and bowled first,” said Warne, commentating for Sky Sports.  
“They were outstanding. It’s not often you have the perfect innings and England just did.
“I think Stuart Broad has probably been the best England bowler through this whole series,” the legendary leg-spinner added.
“I still think Australia could have been more defensive and have better technique with some of the deliveries.
“But this is why you heard from the England camp that ‘we want traditional English pitches’, and this is why,” Warne said.

Warne, Ponting shocked by Australian collapse

Reuters/Nottingham

Australian great Shane Warne and former captain Ricky Ponting lamented technical failings and mental approach as their countrymen were shot out for a humiliating 60 by England on the first morning of the fourth Ashes Test yesterday.
Warne believes some of the problems stem from the increased amount of limited-overs cricket being played.
“When was the last time there was a real five-day Test match that went down to the wire when the batters hung in there and tried to tough it out?” he said on Sky Sports.
“It all seems to be happening in fast forward too many times. It happened to England at Lord’s as well, bowled out in 30 overs.”
Warne, who took 708 Test wickets and scored more than 3,000 runs, gave credit to England for their bowling and catching in “a perfect session” before lunch at Trent Bridge.
“They exposed a couple of bad techniques,” he said.
“Test cricket is all about technique, the basics. And all about fighting. Credit to Broad, he forced a lot of those errors but I still think Australia could have been a little bit more defensive and (shown) better technique.
“Technique is a teal issue on these sort of pitches. Play it as late as possible or leave it. It’s about getting an ugly score, hanging in there, not giving your wicket away.
“As a batsman you’ve got to have a real plan. It looked like they were a bit shocked. There was no real plan and they should have learnt from the last Test match.”
Ponting questioned why the Australians had talked before the series about how positive they were going to be.
“Why say it?” he said. “You can be positive in defence, show intent by leaving the ball or playing a forward or backward defence.
“It doesn’t have to be standing up and trying to whack it through the covers. That’s not going to work in these conditions.
“I don’t know if they’re confused about the way they want to play. They shouldn’t be. When conditions are like this you just have to find a way to get through.
“I just don’t think they’re defensive-minded enough. “Mitchell Johnson probably left the ball better than the top-order players. He was prepared to guts it out. But at that stage they were seven down.”