Perhaps it was inevitable that Stuart Broad would reach this milestone bowling from the end named after the only other Englishman to have taken 600 Test wickets, having blazed his own vibrant trail, paradoxically, in James Anderson’s wake throughout so much of his career.
But on this occasion, with sun high in the Manchester sky, the Old Trafford Pavilion, fittingly, cast no shadow, Broad having this summer stepped into clear ground as the leader of England’s attack, a mantle he has so often grasped in the heat of Ashes cricket. His 600th Test scalp, that of Travis Head straight after tea, was also a record 149th against Australia, 34 more than Anderson, one more than Ian Botham and yet another produced at a critical juncture in a vital Ashes game.
There is a long way to go yet, but having taken the gamble of inserting Australia, England will be confident that their bid for an essential victory is on track, all eight of the recognised batters in a deep visiting lineup dismissed for 299 runs by the close, half of them by the outstanding Chris Woakes.
Anderson was not actually on the field for the moment when English membership of the 600 Club doubled, back in the side this week on his home ground but later polishing off his sandwiches at the break. When he did return, the 40-year-old was quick to seek out his long-term foil for a congratulatory embrace, one square metre of turf for a moment enclosing every seam bowler to have taken 600 Test wickets in the history of the game. Only three spinners - Muttiah Muralitharan, Shane Warne and Anil Kumble - would have had right to interrupt the scene.
In truth, Broad’s opening spell was by his standards nothing special, his usually immaculate line to left-handers wandering astray, until the fifth over of the morning, when the series’ leading wicket-taker threw another onto his tally, trapping Usman Khawaja in front, the top run-scorer having added only three to his. Anderson was better, more probing against the busy David Warner, but luckless all the same on another wicketless day, Woakes eventually the batter’s conqueror for 32.
That both openers fell in the morning session, then the twin-kingpins of Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne between lunch and tea, told that far from the accelerated game Ben Stokes had hoped for to beat the weekend weather, this was among the more conventionally-paced days of cricket this series has produced.
History was against Stokes’s decision at the toss, no captain having ever elected to bowl and gone on to win a Test match here. But the calculation figured that if rain is to intervene later and England are at some stage forced to throw caution to the wind in chasing a result, they will be better placed to do so with bat in hand in the fourth innings than ball.
The by-product was that Stokes ceded first use of a good batting surface and, potentially, the match’s kindest batting conditions to the holders, who need only a draw here to retain the Ashes. There were moments when the skipper must’ve questioned the wisdom of that call, but for Australia, this was an innings of scattered contributions without a knockout blow.
Four partnerships reached 45 runs but none went on to frustrate and punish the home side by adding more than another 20. Every player bar Khawaja made a start, but only Labuschagne and Mitchell Marsh passed fifty, both then falling immediately for 51.
Labuschagne, having grafted hard for his first half-century of the series, gifted his wicket to Moeen Ali for the second successive innings, the hint of turn on offer for England’s spinner on day one welcome, given Australia have - for the first time in more than a decade - declined to pick one.
That call, made to accommodate the fit-again Cameron Green, may yet pay-off though, with Marsh retained after his century at Headingley and looking in powerful form again before Jonny Bairstow’s timely stunner behind the stumps gave Woakes his third wicket of the day.
The Warwickshire man, at that stage, had nine wickets in the series despite sitting out the first two Tests and when the new-ball became available with ten minutes left in the day, Stokes’s faith was his reward, repaid instantly by Alex Carey’s feather behind attempting to leave.
