A Broad perspective to a hat-trick

After getting Sachin Tendulkars wicket at the start of the second session,Stuart Broad was in his stride by the time Yuvraj Singh took guard for his much-anticipated Test return. Broad and Yuvraj share the same page in the history book but being a bowler in a 8216;six sixes statistic isnt too complimentary. Today at Trent Bridge,Broad made history by claiming Test crickets 38 th hat-trick and the first-ever by any bowler against India. And the dream spell that got him three out of three was triggered by the wicket of Yuvraj Singh.

After he had Yuvraj edging an away going ball that rose menacingly,Broad was in the zone. Including Yuvrajs dismissal,Broad took 5 wickets from 16 balls without conceding a single run. MS Dhoni became Broads first hat-trick victim in the next over when he nicked an away-swinger into the hands of the wicketkeeper. He was a bit lucky to have Harbhajan Singh lbw as the ball hit bat on the way to the pad. But there was no doubt about the next wicket as Praveen Kumar was clean bowled.

The capacity crowd at Trent Bridge was on its feet. The pacer who wasnt quite an obvious pick before the first Test had turned a corner. In the first Test,he wasnt just the most consistent bowler but also a very useful lower-order batsman. Today with a hat-trick,Broad was the man whom England are banking to lead their charge to the World No.1 spot.

Two critical half centuries and 13 wickets from 3 innings mean Broad is skipper Andrew Strauss go-to man. After the hat-trick on his home patch,he should be asked the question Ian Botham was asked after his memorable 1981 Ashes: Who writes your scripts?