Nottingham, July 31 (IANS) Stuart Broad single-handedly brought England back into the second Test with a hat-trick in India’s first innings but the lanky fast bowler says his feat won’t mean much if they don’t end up winning the match.
Stuart Broad, who took his last hat-trick while playing for the Oakham School under-15 side, Saturday became the first bowler to take three wickets of consecutive balls against India in Tests.
‘The atmosphere wasn’t quite as good at school, with the parents watching,’ Broad recalled of his school days.
‘But it (hat-trick here) won’t mean much if we don’t go on and win this Test match. Tomorrow will be our biggest test in this match, to see if we can get 300 runs and put the Indians under pressure on the last day because I think that wicket will be pretty useful to bowl on for the seamers, with variable bounce.’
Broad has been a saviour for England in the match. He played a gutsy knock of 64 on the opening day to bail his team out of a precarious 124 for eight at tea and delivered with the ball on the following day. The team’s new T20 captain stressed on the importance of runs on the third day.
‘India had three-quarters of the day – I said this after the first day – and we nicked the last session. We are fighting hard and tomorrow is going to be a huge day if we can bat big. We need one guy to go and get a hundred, and a big hundred, and we are right in the game. And bowling last on that wicket could be an advantage for us,’ he said referring to India’s collapse in the final session where they lost six wickets for 21 runs to be all out for 288.
Broad said his captain Andrew Strauss had asked the team members to raise their game in the third session.
‘We dropped Yuvraj (Singh) on four which was a concern when he and Dravid were playing brilliantly,’ he said.
‘We knew the new-ball period would be a huge hour for us. Straussy (Andrew) asked us at tea if we could all raise our intensity in that hour to put some pressure on the India batsmen and fortunately there was a little swing with the new ball and the edges came our way. So we have got ourselves back in this game.’
