Broad hails England attitude

17 February 2008

Stuart Broad claims England played with much less fear in Auckland © Getty Images

Stuart Broad believes England's revival in the current one-day series against New Zealand has been achieved by adopting a fearless approach.

Successive thumpings at Wellington and Hamilton - when England were dismissed for 130 and 158 - left the tourists facing a series defeat had they lost in last Friday's meeting at Eden Park.

But after two days of honest talking and soul-searching, England delivered a vastly-improved performance to claim a resounding six-wicket victory, and travel to Napier for Wednesday's fourth game in the five-match series with hopes high.

The turnaround has been impressive and Nottinghamshire seamer Broad believes it has been a direct result of a more aggressive style of play when they were batting, which enabled them to seal victory on Friday with three overs remaining.

"We all know we under-performed (with the bat)," admitted Broad. "We knew we had to put some pressure back on their bowlers and play a bit more fearless cricket.

"We've been a bit timid, really. I think fearless was a word we used. We wanted to go out and if you back yourself to hit over the top, just do it."

That was underlined by captain Paul Collingwood, man of the match on Friday, hammering 70 off 50 balls and giving the side renewed belief for the final two matches of the series.

"We're not a bad side," stressed Broad. "We played badly twice, but it doesn't make us a terrible team.

"A week ago everyone thought we were fantastic because we'd played well in the Twenty20 games and we just need to keep that belief and walk out on the pitch believing we're going to win. I think that's what we did at Auckland."