Advertisement

Broad hails special moment as he overtakes hero Botham

Broad hails special moment as he overtakes hero Botham

Stuart Broad labelled taking his 384th Test wicket as a special moment as he moved past his hero Ian Botham in England's all-time list.

Broad led the England charge at Edgbaston on Saturday as Joe Root's side took an astonishing 19 wickets on day three to wrap up an innings and 209-run victory over a woeful West Indies.

The seamer claimed five wickets across the two innings, with his three in the second seeing him eclipse Botham and rise to second in the rankings behind team-mate James Anderson (492).

Broad nearly completed the feat with a hat-trick as he removed Roston Chase and Jason Holder in successive balls, but he had to wait for the 38th over to move into second outright - bowling Shane Dowrich with a beautiful off-cutter that rocked back the off stump.

"It's very special," Broad told Sky Sports. "He [Botham] has obviously been a hero of mine, he gave me my first Test cap back in 2007.

"He's someone who inspired me to play cricket for England with his performance against Australia, in particular. It's very special to be up there in the ranks with him."

Botham joined the 31-year-old for his post-match interview and spoke of his own pride at seeing Broad go past him.

"I got quite emotional - I wanted him to get the wickets and then everyone could relax," said the England legend.

"I thought that he looked like he was trying too hard initially. But it was great, I'm really pleased for him."

Broad went on to admit that he never expected to move on to 384 earlier in the day after West Indies resumed on 44-1 in their first innings, but had made sure he had the ball for his collection.

"I wasn't thinking about the record this morning," he added. "Not in our wildest dreams did we think we'd get 19 wickets to win a Test. 

"I've not had the haul of wickets I would have liked [this year], so it was lovely to get that three-wicket spell because it got us a step closer to winning the Test match and helped my confidence.

"The ball is in the changing room somewhere. Stokesy [Ben Stokes] caught it and ran straight towards me and said 'here's the ball' so it's nice to have a pink ball in the collection."