‘I remember when I took my 100th wicket thinking it was a marathon!’: Stuart Broad on passing Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath with ‘friend for life’ Jimmy Anderson as Test cricket’s most prolific ever bowling pair
- Stuart Broad and James Anderson have passed 1,000 wickets in tandem
- Broad’s mother in attendance at the Test match to watch pair pass the milestone
- England on the verge of securing another Test victory under Ben Stokes
It is very special to have taken more than 1,000 wickets in tandem with Jimmy Anderson. He’s someone I spend a lot of time with, not just around cricket, and to have that record now with a friend for life is truly incredible.
We may have more wickets than Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne but that doesn’t mean we’re the best partnership. I grew up with those Aussie greats as two of my heroes and what they did for the game and how they inspired generations was extraordinary.
But 1,000 wickets is pretty mind-boggling. When you say it, it doesn’t feel real and when you write it down it doesn’t feel real either. I remember when I took my 100th wicket thinking it was a marathon, so this is something else.
It is special, too, because my mum Carole has been here watching this Test. She was originally going to do a bit of whale watching in New Zealand before the game but Cyclone Gabrielle put paid to that and she was just thankful to get here in time for the Test.
We have actually been incredibly fortunate here in Mount Maunganui to get this game on because the cyclone did not hit us here nearly as hard as in many other areas of the North Island.
Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad passed the two Australian greats as the most prolific ever bowling pair
Anderson and Broad have enjoyed more than a decade together at the top for England
They passed Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne as the most prolific pair – with the Australian duo finishing on 1,001 wickets in tandem
Those wickets are a sign of longevity and a sign of two bowlers constantly pushing each other to get better and driving each other forward. I feel blessed to have been born in the same era as Jimmy and share so many happy memories with him. We’re different bowlers but I do feel we complement each other really nicely.
Our chat with Brendon McCullum in the dinner break on the third night of this first Test was simply ‘Let’s hunt wickets tonight’. And from that moment on I loved it.
We knew the quality New Zealand have at the top of the order and we knew if we could get a few on the night we would give ourselves a really good chance. Then the Barmy Army got going, the crowd started lifting us and we felt it could be our night.
When I take a wicket early in a spell I tend to get a feeling it might be my day and I actually said to Jimmy when I had Tom Latham put down in the slips ‘that’s such a shame because I could get on one here’. So then to bowl him soon after really got me moving.
I got into a rhythm after that and it just felt like a good pitch for me. I just had to hit it hard and try to get the ball to wobble and bring the stumps into play. But I don’t think I’ve ever taken four wickets all clean bowled before. I think I needed that fifth one for this to compare with some of my other spells over the years but I’ll take this for now!
The way we set the game up throughout has been all about building towards bowling as much as possible under lights with the harder pink ball.
Harry Brook’s knock was crucial. Joe Root found that one-day rhythm and Ollie Robinson put on crucial runs towards the end. As a bowling group we’d have been happy defending 320-330, so for the batters to get us closer to 400 really made us feel comfortable. Never did I hear any talk at any point of our batters slowing down when we lost wickets. Honestly, since last June I can’t remember hearing a negative word in the dressing room. It’s phenomenal to watch up close how Baz and Ben Stokes go about their business.
It’s a bit of a shame we don’t have one of those fly-on-the-wall documentaries following us around because this is an amazing thing to be part of and I’m so lucky, at 36, to be seeing it close at hand.
I’ll give you an example of the way Baz thinks. At a quarter to nine on the second evening I was laying on the physio bed and Baz walks in. He goes, ‘Hawk, it’s time.’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ and he said ‘You’re going in next!’ If you’d asked me a year ago if I’d be batting at No4 above Joe Root just to go and try to hit boundaries I’d have laughed at you, but it’s all part of the entertainment Baz is trying to provide for everyone.
The pair were congratulated with a message on the boards at the Bay Oval
Broad finally came in for England in his famed ‘night hawk’ role as England looked to bat New Zealand out of the game
The point is, it’s sort of a free hit. It doesn’t matter if I get out first ball. I’m there to make people smile and it certainly makes our dressing room smile.
My philosophy at this stage of my career is simple. I can’t control whether I play or not but I can control whether I’m fit, fresh, in rhythm and hungry. And my competitive spirit is still high.
So looking ahead to the cricket coming up I know I’ve got a good record in the Ashes and if I have a positive impact in one Test this summer and we go on to win the Ashes that’s a great drive for me. It would be nice, wouldn’t it?
That’s for the future. For now we have a Test to win and, at the time of writing, there’s work still to do.
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