Test Match Special - How To Win The Ashes: Stuart Broad on Trent Bridge 2015

Episode Date: June 11, 2023

In episode 5, Stuart Broad relives one of the most devastating spells of bowling the Ashes has ever seen from an England bowler. Breaking records after taking 8 wickets for just 15 runs on the first morning of the fourth Test at his home ground, he helped his side reclaim The Ashes in stunning & beautifully ferocious fashion.

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BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. Hello, I'm Jonathan Agnew, and for the next half hour, Stuart Broad will talk you through one of the most devastating spells of bowling I've ever seen from an England bowler. Breaking records as he took eight wickets for just 15 runs on the first morning of the fourth test at his home ground. Broad helped England reclaim the ashes in stunning style. This is Stuart Broad, in his own words. Growing up in, I always dreamt of playing cricket for England, but I think specifically in Ashes' series, influenced heavily by my dad's success,

but also in the garden playing cricket with a tape-tuck tennis ball, my mates would be Matthew Hayden I'd try and be Angus Fraser or Andrew Caddick, Darren Gough Darren Gough, has taken a hat-trick It was always in England-Australia battle Whenever I went to my grandparents' house In Bristol,

granddad would drive everywhere with TMS on So I'd sit in the back listening to that My whole sort of childhood was built around sport But cricket particularly, I think And I just had a huge hunger for cricket Before the Trembridge test, we all had a chat with Bob Willis, the bowling group and we went for dinner at a local restaurant and he talked about stories about how he stayed fit,

how he got into running, that sort of thing, about his spell at Heddingley, the famous 8th. Here's Willis in, Bowles to Bright. Bright bowled, the middle stands out of the ground. England have won. They've won by 18 runs. Willis runs around, punching the air. Willis has taken eight wickets for 43. Superb bit of bowling by Bob Willis.

Eight wickets, you can't ask for more than that. Well, that roar from the Edgebison crowd still makes your hair stand on then, doesn't it? Welcome to Trent Bridge. And for that fourth test match in this five-match series with England, one win away from... The morning at Trent Bridge of the test, I must admit, I was nervous. I'd had a restless night. I probably felt the extra responsibility of Jimmy not playing. I think I've only played in three test matches where he's not played.

Stuart's going to have to be the leader of the pack sooner or later, and it's sooner today. The responsibility of bowling the first ball of the game is always quite a big one, and all week Trevor and Cookie had been on very much. It's all to do with the first hour of this game. We've been brilliant at Edgebaston. Let's come to Trent Bridge. Let's show the Aussies that we mean business with this first hour. So whether it's the opening battles or the opening bowlers, get it right.

So, of course, that sort of builds up your emotion. a little bit because you want to get it right for the team. So I woke up early 6amish I think and had a bit of breakfast. Obviously my nerves were, my stomach was turning a bit. I could feel, it wasn't a bad feeling, it was like an excited feeling. I almost wanted to get the game going now. Got to Trent Bridge, got into my spot as per normal. I mean, I like to set up my spot the night before the game,

the training before the game, just make sure my cap and sun hat shirt I'm going to wears, not creased, et cetera, like that. So everything was in place. Those nerves sort of stayed with me up until very close to the game. I remember Cookie talking about the toss. He was very undecided what to do. He was leaning towards bowling. I record there at Trent Bridge was great when we bat first,

so I was sort of encouraging him to bat. And the only time I really settled on a bowl was when Shane Worm walked past me when I was marking my run-up out. And he said, what do you think of this? I was like, we've got a decent grass covering. There's a bit of moisture underneath, but we know at Trent Bridge, the outfield's always quick. It's always an okay place to bat early. And he said, I'm always a bat first man, but I think even I'd have a bowl.

And that made me think, well, if Shane Warren's thinking we should have a bowl, we should probably have a bowl. Here's a toss. Confirmation by the clerk about at five. Pence is the call. It is a tail. England won the toss. England won the toss. Alistair, what are you going to do?

We're going to have a ball. There you go. Is that a straightforward decision? We thought so. that's a big toss enough I went to do my sort of pre-match not rituals superstitions

etc I like to put my clothes in on and get my sweatbands ready etc and then I walked down to the front I always bowl some balls at Otis Gibson of course here comes Stuart Broad walking past to sit on 299 test wickets of course he's marking out his run looking very purposeful

The thing about Brody that I really like is when he really needs to turn it on he tends to it's no surprise that his best records are in the ashes. When the big Ashes test match has come around, he tends to pull his finger out. So it wouldn't surprise me if he ran a mock this morning.

Well, he's got it about right, isn't it? I know Swanee very well. It was actually quite funny leading into the test match. We went to Swanies, me, Jimmy Stokesy, went to Swanies on the Saturday night. And Charlie Shrek, who I played with at Knott, was cooking a barbecue for us. And Charlie was so nervous cooking

because he had this fear that he was going to poison one of us. and put us out the series deciding test match. So he cooked everything to an absolute, like to death, really. So we relaxed at Swanies that week. He only lives sort of six or seven houses away from me. So I think he maybe realized I was feeling the pressure a bit and he tried to take it off me. Up on the screen, I see a photograph of one of the favourites here at Trent Bridge,

Clive Rice, who captained here for so many years. Of course, he led Nottinghamshire to two county championships to a Nat West medal as well, 900-odd first-class wickets, 26,000 runs, he was a great all-round cricketer and the crowd here standing and applauding to be minutes of applause for Clive Wright. It was my dad's captain at Narts, my mum was very close to the family.

I hadn't spent a lot of time with Clive, but I remember him calling me after I got a man of the match in 2013 at Durham, got that 10 and 11th and he said it was one of the best spells he'd watched. he'd watched which was amazing coming from a player of such a sort of legacy at knots and after the I remember being near the members and they were all quite emotional as they would be after losing a hero really quite unexpectedly and I almost felt my nerves like disappear during that that minute because it was

like it's a game of cricket the end of the day I sort of that feeling came over me of I've done the training like a family family lost his life and I'm concerned about bowling the first baller of the game, let's just go and do it. Here come the England side, listen to that. Cook leads them out and Stuart Broad goes past him, running sideways, the sweatband round his left wrist, the white fobby sun hat on the long... I saw aggers, as I always do, stood by the boundary's edge and he almost, I bought my dogs with aggers and stuff, so he gave me sort of a wink of encouragement and off we went, ran through the, The kids with the flags and got in the huddle.

It's going to be the aforementioned Stuart Broad who's going to start things off from the pavilion end. The first over is always a big one, and you've got to try and set the tone with your first couple of deliveries. I think that's always important. In my mind, I was so clear I just didn't want to get driven. I didn't want to give the batsmen an easy drive through the cover's first ball of the game.

So I didn't want to bowl a bouncer particularly, but anything above knee-roll height I was happy with it. Coming on to bowl, the first ball of this fourth test match is in, he bow, and Rogers goes back, one that lifts. And there's a bit of movement, a little bit of sea movement away from him. And I thought that would be the case, because I always scratch where my foot will land, just to give me a bit of extra grip.

And quite a bit of moisture came up with the scratching of the surface. And then the next ball I fell into the odd school trap of, oh, it's moved quite a bit of that ball from short. So I'll start this a bit more leg-side, see if it goes. And it sort of hit his pad and went for four by. So I walked back to my mark, thinking you've shown them so much an experience there. It's unbelievable. What are you doing? And that was a slightly bit of ill direction by Stuart Broad there.

Do what you've trained to do, get your alignment right, check that your chest is going towards off-stump and just bowl it out of stump. And then if it moves away, happy days, if it doesn't, then you've still got to play. And the next ball was the absolute perfect delivery that I was. was trying to bowl. I'd sort of decided in my mind what I was going for and it couldn't have come out better. Here is Stuart Broad again into Chris Rogers. He's up to the wicket now he bowed. Oh, Roger's cut forward and he's gone. He's caught there in the slips and just reminds me of sitting in the back of my granddad's car that. You hear the crowd before you

actually hear the dismissal, don't you? Yeah, that brings back nice memories. As soon as it caught the edge, I just, I had a calmness about me. I just never thought cookie was dropping that. He's got relatively safe hands, but he's not. He's not a hundred percenter, but it just went in nicely and we were off. I'd sort of had this sort of run off to cover point, I think. Beautiful bit of bowling there by Stuart Bull. That was a crucial wicket for me because I know at Edgebaston, I'd probably strived for that 300 wicket a little bit,

and I'd got a glove down the leg side that we had no referral was left for. So it was almost fate that it was to happen at Trent Bridge. But once it happened, it was like, great start, lads. Thank God that's done. Let's focus on making some more inroads. And here comes broad in bow. Come forward driving. A fine show.

It slides off the face to the back. Four runs. Steve Smith came in. He actually drove me really convincingly through the covers. But I was bizarrely quite happy with that. I knew that there was movement in the wicket. And although he'd struck the ball well, driving early on that wicket was quite a dangerous ploy for a number three

with a brand new ball. So I actually remember walking back to my mark just like clapping under my chin, almost like I don't mind that shot. It shows that his nerves are. there, his beans are going, so to speak. But equally broad will be delighted. He won't mind bringing him on to the front foot.

The next ball, I sort of dragged my length back slightly so he couldn't drive, but it's still enough seam, and he just got completely turned round, and I think Rudy, I actually can't remember who caught it, because as soon as he nicked it, I was running. I just, I knew it was being called. I was off. He was broad again. He's in,

he's up to the wicket, he's there, he bow, oh, and that one. He's gone, he's gone. He's caught. He's gone. I don't think Blowers knew who caught it either, I think he was as excited as I was when the edge came. ...witted in the first over and Australia are 10 for two. Can you believe it? You can't believe it. You couldn't have written the script like this. It's quite extraordinary.

That was quite an incredible start to the game. Still, the over went for 10. But we had two wickets, which was when you win a toss, crucial. All right. That's a great delivery from broad. Absolute beauty, wasn't it, Blowers? It's always special at Trent Bridge, being born in Nottingham, having grown up watching a lot of cricket in Nottingham. I feel very close to the crowd there,

so I always get a nice sort of cheer when I come on to bowl and stuff, and I think with it being the first over of the game as well, the cheer was a little bit louder. So it was nice to sort of repay their cheer early on. I mean, no one, none of us would have predicted what was going to happen in the next 17 over. Wood kicks himself off. Here he is again. In now Bowles Warner. Better. Oh, he's gone. He's gone. He's gone behind. He's gone. Wood has got a wicket with his second ball.

Australia are 10 to 3. And Warner has gone for North. Unbelievable. Both openers out for North. Warner and Rogers Smith has gone for six. We've had eight balls of this match. I think we were aware of something very special was happening, but it was pure, all our thoughts were like, let's get ahead in this game, because it was a pivotal test match. The ashes were on the line.

We'd worked for months for these sort of moments to be able to grab a chance, and we were grabbing it quite convincingly, really. And poor Michael Clark who thought, going in five, I'm going to be able to shelter myself a bit. He's coming in to face the ninth ball of the man. So everyone on the field just wanted that to continue. All the talk was, okay, new batsman, this plan, this plan, let's make sure we do this. Remember, this is the length we're bowling, let's stick to that.

Well, now Mr Marsh on his first ashes in this England has got to face Stuart Broad, a rampant Stuart Broad as well on just the seeming pitch. England just need to rein it back a bit though, not get too carried away, just keep hitting those lines and length. He's in, he's up to the wicket now, he bowls and... Oh! He's caught there, had taken six. Thel has taken the catch and 15 for four. Can you believe it? It gets better and better and better and better for England.

And worse and worse and worse for Australia. I felt light. I felt like the ball was smaller, which meant that I could bowl it quicker. I don't know. I felt things did happen in slow motion, even the edges. As I mentioned, I would just run off. but it was like it was a given that it was going to get caught.

It just felt like the ball was hanging in the air ready to be taken. And they're feelings that you don't always get as a bowler, obviously, because otherwise you'd bowl like that every day of your life. But I think I had a realization of things are in my favor here a little bit. I've got a pitch that's got movement. I feel fresh as a daisy. I feel light. I feel like I've got the ball.

ball going exactly where I want it and we've got two wickets early so it was almost like a discipline of saying let's capitalize on this as well let's make something happen here here's broad coming in and bowling to Vodges oh he's brilliantly caught brilliantly caught

that is an outrageous by Ben Scopes that was gone it was past him and he flung himself backwards and to his right you won't see a better catch I'm sorry You can have your Andrew Strauss here in 2005.

That beats it. That beats that catch. That was quicker. It had gone. He had no time to see that. They've summed that out absolutely perfectly, really. I just couldn't believe he caught it. Agers was saying the ball had gone, the ball had gone,

which was my complete feelings as well. I saw the edge and I saw Adam Lithe turn to chase the ball and my inner feelings were, oh, that's four. And then I saw, obviously, Stokesy sort of dive behind him and take this unbelievable catch. And he only caught it in the two fingers. I think you can see he's got this awful broken finger that he had surgery on that went wrong. And it's sort of one and a half times the size as it used to be. And he calls it his claw.

And the ball sort of lodged in between his thumb in this claw and he grabbed hold of it. It was an absolutely astonishing catch. I don't actually know how he's caught that. It was the best catch I've ever seen in all my overs of playing cricket. And to see it from 12 yards away, 15 yards away, was awesome. And I think I showed my disbelief in my face. Yes, the ball has done a bit, but not that much there. They've shown the replay and hear the gas from the crowd.

And look on the balcony. Paul Farbrace, both hands above his head. Stuart brought wide-eyed and just puts his hand over his mouth as if he'd seen a ghost. Oh, no. What do I look like there? An outrageous catch. They showed the side-on of me watching the ball my eyes growing and then the moment he's caught it and then I've covered my face

and I heard a bit of a chuckle sort of within the stadium of everyone watching it and then I remember I got off the field and I had tweets from like Theo Wolcott doing the face and I was like right this is someone's got all to this picture and made it go all over Twitter and a bit viral so yeah I remember seeing it quite a lot that evening

Well, that was just an absolutely phenomenal catch. Look at that scorecard. To Michael Clark, throughout my time of bowling at him in the last four or five years, I've tended to bowl with a short leg because I felt as a bowler he had a bit of a blind spot for my action. I've hit him quite a few times on the shoulder, on the arm, and I want him to feel like I was going to bowl short. I knew full well that I wasn't going to bowl a short ball a short ball on this pitch because I was getting so much reward for pitching it fuller,

I was going to continue bowling that length. But I did the old school sort of wave to fine leg. Come in five, because if your top edge is it, I want you to catch it. I mean, I used to do that in league cricket, but it's still sort of part and parcel of what I do to try and kid the batsman that I'm going to bowl short. And my plan was to bowl, try and swing it away, a bit fuller than I had been bowling, to encourage a drive.

And actually the ball, if I'm brutally honest, really go where I wanted it to. It was too wide and probably a foot and a half too full. Broughts on his way. Bowles to Clark who's on 10. Here he comes. Slashes it is caught. Court by Cook. Two hands above his head. A horrible shot.

As he edged it, I just thought I've got lucky here. But that was my most fortunate wicket out of the lot. I mean a lot of them fell to a plan. That was a plan but I actually executed it pretty poorly. But it worked. And that's actually, that's the first time I looked up at the scoreboard.

Five wickets already for Stuart Broad, and we haven't had 40 minutes play. Is that the first week's ever for five wickets? The beginning of a match, yes. Yes. Is it how many balls? 19 balls is bold. On the scoreboard was five for six, off five overs or something. And I was like, I'm onto something here.

They're quite good figures. Let's keep this going. Finn in now, Bolston, Neville. Vote him! Castle in! Away swing and in knit. It was a beautiful ball from Stephen. in. The spell's been getting better and better. He's been getting quicker. That was 86 miles

and that. It was a beauty. Neville goes, Australia, 33 for seven. I don't know what the equivalent of a misprint is on radio, but it's not. 33 for seven. Finney bowed absolutely Jaffir to get rid of the keeper. And then the last few wickets took an age in a mental sense, I think. Obviously, they didn't because we bowled Australia out in 18.3 overs. But I think with all the rush of what had happened, just even a leave from a batsman felt like an anti-climax. It was like, come on, play a shot. We want to get another wicket. And a lot of the talk when Johnson was leaving quite nicely was, let's stay patient. Let's remember this is a five-day test match. We don't have to chase the game here. Let's just keep bowling our best ball and

see how we go. It's one of those mornings where a dot ball actually feels strangely deflating. You feel it's not a wicket. Well, there's a bit of an anti-climates in the last broadover, because I think that's the first one where he didn't get a wicket. What was going on? You'd have to take him off, I think. So if you're just switching on in Australia, switch off, and go out and do some gardening or something else. This is not pleasant.

Garden in the middle of the night, Jim. Oh, well, go to the pub. I don't know what you do. Anyway, Broadboles, Edge Court. Joe Root catches stark. Australia eight for 46, starts out for one. And Broad has six for ten. I remember my celebration was relief. It was just like, we've got another wicket.

Rather than it being like, yes, come on. It was just like, thank you, thanks. We've been rewarded for being patient, but it probably only been three or four overs. I do remember thinking should I change my plan from bowling round the wicket because I haven't taken a wicket for 12. for 12, 15 balls.

But I actually, in my mind, said, well, if it was good enough for Chris Rogers at the top of the order, it should be good enough for an 8 and 9. Keep trying to bowl your best ball. Broad's coming into Johnson, Johnson. He edges, he's out. He's caught a third slip.

Joe Root takes a comfortable catch. And Stuart Broad has seven wickets. Seven wickets. Australia, 9 for 47, plummeting towards one of the most embarrassing batting performances in test history. I had a word with Nathan Lyme when he came out to bat purely because around the toss I was marking my run-up, he was marking his run-up. He was thinking it should be a bat. As I mentioned earlier, I was thinking it should be a bat.

So we had a bit of a discussion about that. And then he came out to the middle, obviously, what would there have been, 50 odd for nine. And he just looked at me, we got eye contact and he goes, And he goes, I think it was probably the right decision, Brody. I was like, yeah, you might be right. And we had a bit of a smile, a bit of a laugh. And then he hit me for four, which is the most frustrating four I've ever been hit for. That becomes bowls and, oh, sliced away over the gully and down four.

Four runs through third man. I remember it being so frustrating. I was like, don't you go ruining these figures? Don't you ruin my day? I remember thinking that, like, please just let me get rid of him. Don't let him slog me for 20 or something. And then fortunately the next ball I bowed a very similar ball

and he nicked it to Stokesy. Broad runs in bowls and that's Edgson course, it's all over. One of the most dramatic morning's test cricket you'll ever see. Australia, having bowled out for 60 and Stuart Broad has taken 8

415 from nine overs and three balls. I'll say that again. 8 for 15 from nine overs and three balls. What I love about that bit of sound is how Agers is making the 15 sounds so pronounced. He didn't want the mistake of 8 for 50. It was 8 for 15, 8 for 15.

It sounds so strange when it gets said. I do remember looking at the scorecard on the big screen as I got in and with the broad, broad, broad, broad, broad. And I was like, that doesn't look real. What has happened here? We've seen some ashes spells over the years, but I think Stuart Broad has just gone straight. abroad has just gone straight to the top of the lift in my certain time playing and watching the game. That evening was a strange one.

I was quite emotionally tired, I think. Obviously, having to do, the media takes another 45 minutes after the close of play. Shower change up. And I remember walking across the car park, you got to walk across the pitch. There was a lot of fans there, all wanting like a signature with an 8 for 15 underneath on their tickets, on their programs, etc. Which was great. I mean, I'd never seen that amount of fans stay for the end of a test match day. Absolutely fantastic. The blight of a cocker hoop. I was in Australia 18 months ago. We were getting thrushed. The morale was bad. We were bad. But now I feel absolutely brilliant on the back of that.

It's my first cricket match actually. I'm reliably informed. It's not usually like this. Broad, bold, superbly and I thought that our field in was paring salons. In all the years I've been coming to Trent Bridge, never known an atmosphere like that. When you do the media during a test match, you always have to be very careful. about what you say and I talked about as having a lot of work to do in that to win that test match deep down I I knew the game and the series was one because Joe Ruta gone and got a hundred he said the pitch was playing really nicely said it was a really good pitch to bat on I think that moisture had gone out of it and we had over a 300 lead I think already so I think

we we knew something unbelievable would have to happen for us not to win that test match But I didn't want to say that in a press conference when we've still got a lot of work to do. We still had 10 wickets to take. And I think I towed a bit of the party line really, but within my heart I knew that we'd had one hand on the hand. Wickets tumble as England reduce Australia to ashes bowling them out for 60 before lunch.

The chief destroyer, England's Stuart Broad, who at times scarcely looked like he could believe it either. The fast bowler ended up with a career best. So it probably took me an hour and 45 to get home, maybe, after the close of play. So I got home quarter to nine, half eight quarters to nine, and Beard cooked some fajitas. And I just sat down to eat, so I've had my first mouthful. And the buzzer went, and I was like, who is that?

I was tired. I just wanted to lie on the sofa, like, see my girlfriend, lie with the dogs. So I've gone to answer the phone. in it. Hey, up. I'm like, who is it? She's your dad. Oh, come in, come in. So he bought a nice bottle of red over to, he wanted to have a glass for me for the 300th wicket, which was lovely actually, and he, he didn't do a toast, so to speak, but he said, I can't believe that my little lad who didn't, not one bit of his body fitted over my hand, were born 12 weeks premature, has turned and got 300 test wickets. It's unbelievable. And as we were

speaking, my sister called from New Zealand on FaceTime. So I, had a good chat. She'd just woken up and was like, I can't believe it. What's happened? What has happened? So we ran her through the innings. So yeah, it was a really nice evening. But by 10 o'clock I was completely zonked. Like I just had to go to bed. The whole emotions of being so high and then trying of sort of bring yourself down was spectacular. Something I've never experienced, oh, I've never experienced anything like that. It was such a high. It was a day that I'll never beat. It was a day that

will always live long in my memory and hopefully the team's memory because it was a day we had worked a long time for to bring those ashes home and we managed to do it. And Stuart Broad has taken 8 for 15 from nine overs and three balls. I'll say that again 8 415 from nine overs and three balls and Australia have been bowled out for 60.

This is the TMS podcast. That was the latest episode of How to Win the Ashes and you can watch the documentary in full now on the BBC Eye Player. Don't forget there's full coverage of the Ashes and the women's ashes coming up this summer across the BBC on radio. TV and online, including commentary on every ball on test match special. Need more than 90 minutes? Hello and welcome to Football Daily. Can't get enough cricket chat. Welcome to tail enders. My name is Greg James. This is a cricket podcast for the

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