Old warrior Broad lights up Lord’s to prove he still has appetite for the fight

Stuart Broad did not want to be batting on Friday morning. But the previous evening England had collapsed, again, five wickets for eight runs this time, and dumped him right back into the thick of it. So here he was. England were 116 for seven, still 16 runs behind, and Trent Boult was bowling. Broad walloped his first ball for four, then turned the next away for a single.

Ben Foakes played out the rest of the over so Broad was facing Tim Southee now. He hit another four, down the ground, then he took a swing at the next delivery and missed it altogether. Up on the balcony, Ben Stokes winced.

Broad threw his bat at the one after that, too, and it knocked his stumps clean out of the ground. Broad turned, tucked his bat under his arm, and walked briskly back to the pavilion. If he looked up, he would have seen Stokes burying his head in his hands.

It was a desultory innings, a motley array of half‑cocked shots from a batsman who once made 169 on this ground but is now long past bothering with playing properly. What was it Broad said when they were debating how the bowlers were getting on in the Ashes last winter? “It doesn’t matter what bowlers you play if you get bowled out for 140. It might be a bit brutal, but that’s the truth in Test cricket.” This time they had made all of 141.

Broad bowled well early on the first morning, especially in his first spell – four overs, one for eight – but he seemed to flag in the second innings. It felt as if it wasn’t New Zealand’s batting that sapped him so much as the wearisome familiarity of England’s own.

He must have been stiff from the short turnaround between the innings, cheesed off at ending up in this sort of mess all over again. Broad turns 36 in a couple of weeks. He knows