Need to make early inroads tomorrow: Broad

Need to make early inroads tomorrow: Broad

Nottingham: Pacer Stuart Broad, who top-scored for England on Friday with a vital 64, said the home team bowlers would be hoping to make some early inroads into the Indian batting line up on a seamer-friendly Trent Bridge wicket here on Saturday.

The Indian pace trio of Praveen Kumar (3/45), Ishant Sharma (3/66) and S Sreesanth (3/77) exploited the seaming conditions to perfection throughout the day to bowl out England for a modest 221 in the first innings of the second cricket Test.

In reply, the visitors also lost opener Abhinav Mukund off the very first ball of the innings to James Anderson and Broad said the English bowlers would be looking forward to some early wickets in the first session on Saturday.

"We were hoping for another wicket (today), we beat the bat enough. There were plays and misses which could have been nicked. But the bowlers are champing a bit to get in tomorrow and get some nicks," Broad said in the post-day's press conference.

"The good thing was that we didn't chase wickets (this evening). We held it tight. We need to make early inroads in the first session tomorrow as it generally swings here in the morning.

"It always swings in here but there is also bounce in the track. There is enough in it for the bowlers. The way Graeme Swann was out (ball rearing up at him), is actually a lot of encouragement for us," he said.

"Even if its' sunshine here tomorrow, it would still swing. It is not like Lord's. Maybe it would just swing enough to get edges and not (swing) quite a lot for plays and misses. So it's positive even if its sunny," Broad added.

Although he failed to pick up any wicket today, Broad starred with the bat for England.

Broad not only top-scored with 64, but also led England's recovery from a precarious position by sharing 73 runs for the ninth wicket off just 70 balls with Graeme Swann (28) to take the hosts to a respectable score.

Tottering at 124 for eight at tea, Broad said England decided to seize back the initiative by counter attacking.

"We decided to grab the momentum back with our natural game. We decided to hit it if it was in my area. If there was a sort of width, I was going to throw my hands at it," he said.

"It was still swinging but we wanted to throw their bowlers off their line and length. That was our tactics and it paid off for us."

He, however, was of the view that the toss was a crucial as India find themselves in a better position at the close of play.

"They (India) would probably be the happier of the two camps. It was a big toss to win (for India) but we had done well to be just two wickets down at lunch. I would not blame the batsmen, there were some good deliveries in there," Broad said.

"Our top order batted well against the new ball. If they had their guns blazing they could have nicked it. At Lord's we had to battle hard and we got through that period and here we were not successful in doing so."

Broad also had words of praise for S Sreesanth, who came in the side as a replacement for the injured Zaheer Khan.

"He (Sreesanth) bowled very nicely. Given a chance he would bowl at Trent Bridge every week. He had a fantastic seam position and swung it. Our bowler would look to emulate him tomorrow," he said.