LONDON (Reuters) – When England fast bowler Stuart Broad announced on Saturday that he was retiring from cricket after the Ashes series, he probably had visions of bowling his team to victory on the fourth day of the final test against Australia.
He arrived at The Oval on Sunday, put on his pads and walked out to resume his last-wicket batting partnership with long-time team mate James Anderson.
The Australian players gave Broad a guard of honour as he entered the playing arena and to warm applause from the crowd he strode to the wicket with a wide smile on his face before heaving the fourth ball he faced from Mitchell Starc for six.
It was his 55th maximum in tests, putting him fifth on England’s all-time list of six-hitters behind the illustrious quartet of Ben Stokes, Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff and Ian Botham.
That proved to be the last ball Broad will face in test cricket as Anderson, on his 41st birthday, was soon dismissed to leave Australia needing 384 to win the match and take the series 3-1.
As Broad trudged off, he must have been thinking he had the perfect opportunity to add to his 602 test wickets and write the final entry on his list of outstanding bowling achievements against Australia.
The 37-year-old has played 40 Ashes tests in nine series since 2009 and taken 151 wickets, more than any other bowler against Australia.
David Warner and Usman Khawaja, however, had other ideas.
The Australia openers confidently saw off Broad’s opening spell and he conceded 15 runs in six overs before rain halted the day’s play.
By then Warner, dismissed by Broad 17 times in tests, had moved on to 58 and Khawaja 69 with Australia 135-0 and needing another 249 runs for victory.
The game will resume on Monday when Broad, fifth on the all-time list of test wicket takers, will get another chance to script the perfect swansong to his career by helping England to level the series.
They will probably need all his inspirational qualities which were perfectly summed up by Broad’s former captain Alastair Cook who played many tests alongside him.
“What I did see was the look that came over him, the intensity and competitiveness that created an aura around him and a buzz which his team mates could feed off,” Cook wrote in the Sunday Times.
“Another England bowler may come along in the next decade with as much talent, but I will be staggered if we see one who can seize the initiative as he did.”
(Reporting by Ed Osmond; Editing by Ken Ferris)
