Ashes 2015: Stuart Broad takes 8-15 as England eye Ashes win

Fourth Ashes Test, day one, Trent Bridge
Australia 60: Extras 14, Johnson 13, Broad 8-15
England 274-4: Root 124*, Bairstow 74, Starc 3-73
England lead by 214 runs

Stuart Broad took 8-15 as Australia were bowled out for 60 and Joe Root hit a century as England put themselves in a strong position to win the Ashes on the first day of the fourth Test. 

Broad passed 300 wickets and equalled the fastest Test five-wicket haul - 19 deliveries - as the tourists were dismissed in 111 balls at Trent Bridge.

It was the shortest first innings in Test history.

Root's unbeaten 124 helped England to 274-4 at the close, a lead of 214.

Alastair Cook scored 43 and Jonny Bairstow made 74, sharing a fourth-wicket stand of 173 at more than five runs an overs with Yorkshire team-mate Root.
 
Victory will give England an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match series and see them regain the urn they lost courtesy of a 5-0 whitewash in Australia in 2013-14.

If they manage to win this series it will also be their fourth Ashes Home Series win a row which will help do wonders to the team's morale before they enter another testing six months of Test Cricket.

During the next six months the England Cricket Team will face Pakistan and South Africa in corresponding test series respectively.

 

 How the Australia innings unfolded

Broad, bowling the first over, had Chris Rogers caught at first slip by Alastair Cook with his second ball - claiming his 300th wicket and inflicting a first duck in 46 Test innings on the Australia opener - before Steve Smith edged his sixth delivery to Joe Root at third slip.

Australia scored 10 runs in that first over, a sixth of their eventual total.

Mark Wood, returning to the England side after missing the third Test win at Edgbaston, struck in the following over when David Warner was caught behind off an inside edge.

Broad had Shaun Marsh held by Ian Bell at second slip in his second over and Adam Voges spectacularly taken one-handed by a diving Ben Stokes at fifth slip in his third.

Australia captain Michael Clarke became Broad's fifth victim, slashing to Cook at first slip from Broad's 19th ball, equalling the number of deliveries needed by Australia's Ernie Toshack to claim five wickets against India at Brisbane in 1947 - although Toshack did not open the bowling.

Steven Finn bowled Peter Nevill to reduce Australia to 33-7 after 9.2 overs, before Broad took the last three wickets as Mitchell Starc and Mitchell Johnson edged to Root at third slip and Nathan Lyon was held by Stokes at sixth slip.

There were still 20 minutes until lunch.

 

 

'Not even James Bond's script writer...'

Australian commentator Jim Maxwell: "This is one of the most embarrassing batting performances in Test history."

Former England batsman Geoffrey Boycott: "Australia are just poor at batting when the ball moves - they play so hard at the ball in front of the pad. You can do that in Australia, but not here. This hasn't moved as much as it did at Edgbaston. Some of the shots have been pathetic. Stuart Broad has just won the game - it's over."

Ex-England spinner Graeme Swann: "When a team gets on a roll, you just expect it. The slips expect to catch every ball. As soon as Australia were five down, somehow we knew that they would be all out before lunch. Everything's gone right for England."

Former England captain Michael Vaughan: "You get the odd morning like this in county cricket, under overcast skies. But you shouldn't get mornings like this in Ashes cricket. And England haven't even had to do that much - they've just bowled that fourth-stump channel."

Test Match Special's Henry Blofeld: "No script writers - even Sam Mendes in all those James Bond films - could have written this."

Former Australia bowler Glenn McGrath: "At lunch you thought it couldn't get any worse for Australia, but it has. It's been the tale of this series for Australia - they haven't adapted to English conditions with bat or ball."

 

 

Broad's triple century

Nottinghamshire seamer Broad, playing his 83rd Test, returned England's third best Ashes bowling figures on Thursday, bettered only by Jim Laker's 9 for 73 and 10 for 53 at Old Trafford in 1956, and the third-cheapest eight-wickets in Test history.


His five-wicket haul is the fastest taken from the start of a Test innings, beating the 25 balls required by South Africa's Vernon Philander to claim five New Zealand wickets at Cape Town in January 2013.

Chris Broad, Stuart's father and ex-England batsman
"Stuart chatted to me a couple of days prior to this Test and I was a bit too concerned he was focused on getting one wicket for his 300. I was a bit worried he would be searching for one if it didn't come early, but to get that in the first over was clearly a huge release."

He has now joined team-mate James Anderson, Sir Ian Botham, Bob Willis and Fred Trueman in England's 300 club when he removed Rogers, and his eighth wicket drew him level with Trueman on 307.

Anderson, who reached the 300 mark in May 2013, is England's leading wicket-taker with 413, although he is missing the fourth Test with a side injury.

Having made his debut against Sri Lanka in 2007, Broad has played in three winning Ashes series - in 2009, 2010-11 and 2013  and scored a Test century against Pakistan at Lord's in August 2010.

England's top Test wicket-takers
Player	Wickets	Tests	Career	Average
Statistics correct at end of Australia first innings
James Anderson	413	107	2003-date	29.38
Ian Botham	383	102	1977-1992	28.40
Bob Willis	325	90	1971-1984	25.20
Stuart Broad	307	83	2007-date	28.95
Fred Trueman	307	67	1952-1965	21.57

Root shows the way

England again showed some top-order frailty as Adam Lyth was caught behind off Mitchell Starc - the sixth time the Yorkshire opener has failed to reach 20 in seven Ashes innings - before Ian Bell was trapped lbw by the same bowler for one.

Captain Cook provided a platform with 43 before he too fell lbw to Starc.

But Root again looked a class above everyone else at the crease, scoring his second century of the series and his eighth overall to usurp Rogers as the leading run scorer in the series and underline England's dominance.

The 24-year-old is the third player in Test history to double the opposing team's score on the first day of a Test match, after Graeme Smith (against Zimbabwe in 2005) and Alviro Petersen (against new Zealand in 2013).

He was ably assisted by Bairstow, who scored his fifth Test half-century in his second match since returning to the side in place of Gary Ballance.

England bowler Stuart Broad on TMS: "It's the best day that I can remember for the first day of a Test match. To have a 214-run lead is very special.

"We got the ball in a really good area, we didn't go searching for wickets. That first wicket really gave me a bit of a boost. Alastair Cook managed to convince me that it was a bowl-first wicket and he's sitting there really smug now.

"We all had dinner with Bob Willis last night and he was great - he just encouraged us to enjoy it."

Australia captain Michael Clarke on Sky Sports: "I'm really disappointed with how the day has turned out, but it's only one day down. We've got to find a way.

I think we were mentally up for the fight, obviously it doesn't look like we were, but I don't want to take anything away from Stuart Broad, and England were brilliant in the field.

"We tried to defend and got out and we tried to play shots and got out. I don't think it was the aggression that got us out - I tried to be aggressive and with that comes risk.

"We weren't as good as we need to be with the ball, but it doesn't help when you've only got 60 runs. We can still find a way to save Ashes, but we've got to fight."

Shaw Post believes that the England Cricket Team will feel very happy with how Day 1 at Trent Bridge has gone as they've managed to shock the cricketing world by bowling Australia out for just 60 shortly before lunch. Credit to Stuart Board who managed his  Test Career best bowling figures of 8 for 15 to end the Australian's first innings. 

  They then batted resolutely to end the day some 214 runs ahead. The England Cricket have Joe Root to thanks largely as he ended Day 1 on 124 not out. 

All England need to tomorrow is score another 150 runs before declaring and putting the confidence shattered Australian's into bat. 

It's been a terrible day for the Australian Cricket Team as they haven't turned up again, maybe their confidence was completely shattered after they were bowled out cheaply for 136 in their first innings at Edgbaston. It looks like there's no way back for them in this Ashes Series. The only way they won't lose the Ashes is if the weather helps them. This won't happen as it's set fair for the next three days.

Once Australia lose the Ashes then Michael Clarke will ultimately have to be pushed as he's in terrible form at the moment and just looks like a walking wicket.