London: Stuart Broad urged England to learn from the example of West Indies star Shivnarine Chanderpaul after the two men dominated the opening day's play in the first Test at Lord's here on Thursday. Fast bowling all-rounder Broad took 6 for 72 as West Indies closed on a total of 243 for 9 built upon 87 not out from Chanderpaul, officially the world's best Test batsman.
Broad's return meant he became only the seventh player in history to both take five wickets in a Test innings at Lord's and score a Test century at the ground - his Test-best knock of 169 against Pakistan was achieved at 'the home of cricket' two years ago.
Now Broad, whose current Test-best bowling innings return of 6 for 46 came at his Nottinghamshire home ground of Trent Bridge last year, could take seven wickets for the first time if he dismisses either Chanderpaul or debutant number 11 Shannon Gabriel on Friday. Broad is only the fifth Englishman to get his name on both Lord's batting and bowling honours boards, following in the path of Ian Botham and Andrew Flintoff.
"To follow Fred (Flintoff) and Beefy (Botham) in the England dressing room is a huge honour but more importantly we got nine wickets on the first day," Broad, the 25-year-old son of former England opening batsman Chris, said.
"But we talked at the start that Lord's is never like that and it's a bit of a patience game. We aimed for seven wickets in the day. We probably didn't start as well as we could have done by the standards we set - certainly myself. I probably got driven too much - but that probably came from the wicket being a lot slower than we imagined, so we searched for a nick. As the wicket got a bit quicker, you could settle into a better length and to pick up nine, we are delighted but Shiv has played very well and we don't want him to get a hundred."
Left-hander Chanderpaul, just the 10th man in history to score 10,000 Test runs, has so far batted for over four hours, facing 175 balls with a dozen fours in a trademark display of obdurate defiance. "He plays it so late in swinging conditions," Broad said. "That's something we can learn as a batting group, although we have a great record here as a batting group. He's very hard to draw into a shot which is why he's No. 1 in the world...He gets to 20-30 without you really realising."
Adrian Barath's 42 was West Indies' second-top score on Thursday, and the 22-year-old opener - playing his first Test in England - was disappointed to have been caught in the slips off Broad shortly after lunch. "Unfortunately, I didn't carry on and get a bigger score," said Barath, 36 of whose runs Thursday came in boundaries. "I need to take it step by step and carry on to the second innings and help West Indies win the game."
Trinidad's Barath said he had tried to learn from Guyana great Chanderpaul. "He has talked about leaving the ball a bit later, picking the areas you are looking to score and having a lot of patience." Reflecting on Chanderpaul's innings, Barath added: "It was fabulous to look at. While he is playing himself in, he still knocks the ball around and picks up singles, twos and so; and before you know it, he is 20 or 30.
"That is the sort of approach young guys have to look at and learn. Ninety per cent of his game is mental. He does not want to come and blast the bowling around. It is waiting for the deliveries and having the patience. He has the right set-up to make runs in these conditions. Everyone can take a page out of his book."
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