#OTD in 2013 | Masterclass from Stuart Broad bundles out New Zealand for 68

On this day in 2013, Stuart Broad delivered one of his finest performances in whites to help England win by 170 runs against New Zealand. 

Born in Nottingham, Broad had a disappointing start early in his career when he was hammered for six sixes by Yuvraj Singh in the 2007 T20 World Cup. However, after this fixture, no one in the cricket fraternity could have predicted that Broad would do well across all the three formats and eventually become the second-highest wicket-taker for England in Test cricket history. 

Fastrack 2013, Broad already had close to 200 wickets under his belt and was a permanent member of the Test side. However, the lack of form and injuries were a matter of concern for him to prolong his career. 

In the first Test of the series between England and New Zealand at Lord’s, the home team batted first and scored 232 on the board, with Jonathan Trott, Joe Root, and Jonny Bairstow contributing around 40 runs. For visitors, Tim Southee picked four wickets. 

In reply, the Blackcaps could manage to score 207, with Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor scoring 60 and 66 runs, respectively. James Anderson picked a five-wicket haul in this pursuit to dismiss the opposition, while Steven Finn had four scalps. 

England had an average start with a lead of 25 runs, but middle-order batters Jonathan Trott and Joe Root again excelled in their performances to score 56 and 71, respectively. The late push from Broad’s unbeaten 26 aided the team to post 213. 

Chasing 239, with the ball seaming around, was not an easy task for the Kiwi team, who had already fallen short of the opposition’s score in the first innings. Before this fixture, only the two groups, West Indies and England, could chase more than this total to win this game.

After the contribution from the bat, Broad took the confidence and displayed a destructive spell of pace bowling to run through the batting department of the visitors. 

In the second over of the innings, the veteran pacer induced an edge of Peter Fulton, caught by the wicketkeeper Matt Prior. Then the sixth over saw Hamish Rutherford getting bowled to an unplayable delivery, an away swinger. 

In the third ball of the same over, Ross Taylor was holed out to Alastair Cook in the first slip. A few overs later, Kane Williamson played an irresponsible shot, which was caught at the extra cover position. Then Anderson dismissed Dean Brownlie, and Broad fired an accurate in-swinger to Brendon McCullum, who was adjudged LBW and the visitors stuttered at 29/6 at Lunch. 

The collapse was confirmed with Tim Southee getting caught on the 16th over by Joe Root off Broad. The wicketkeeper BJ Watling was dismissed by Anderson in the 19th over. 

In the 22nd over, Bruce Martin tried to play a lofted shot but was clean bowled in his attempt, and Broad registered his career-best figures of 7/44. Neil Wagner was run-out in the next over, and New Zealand were dismissed for 68. 

It was the first time since 1936, England bowled with only two players at the helm to dismiss the opposition.