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Warne labels Broad dismissal 'soft'

Legendary spinner slams England paceman's approach in New Zealand defeat

World Cup winner Shane Warne has labelled England paceman Stuart Broad’s dismissal against New Zealand “as soft as it gets”.

Broad came to the crease with England in serious trouble at 7-110 in the 29th over, joining Joe Root who was still to find a partner willing to offer any sort of resistance to a high-quality display of fast bowling from the Black Caps.

The left-hander was out a short time later for four from 10 deliveries, his dismissal coming about as he backed away to leg stump and hit a Tim Southee delivery to Daniel Vettori at mid off (see from the 50 second mark in video above).

“That’s as soft as it gets,” Warne said in the Fox Sports’ commentary.

“Never looked like he was in the game, Stuart Broad.

“Really that’s a soft dismissal.

“His team needed him to dig in and actually get himself in, hang around with Joe Root, but (he) just gave his wicket away.

“He could nearly bat (number) 11 now Stuart Broad, that was just embarrassing.”

Warne’s co-commentator, former New Zealand Test batsman Mark Richardson, concurred.

“I’m with you there, Warney,” Richardson said. “The bloke is a senior player in the side, he’s a leader, and I know he’s not there to bat, but he is, because he does get to bat in the order, and you want something a little bit harder than that.

“You want a little bit of leadership, they haven’t got it, and they’re in further trouble.”

Warne compared the method of dismissal to an oft-told tale involving former Australia quick Rodney Hogg.

“I remember the fast bowler Rodney Hogg getting bowled when he was backing away to the West Indies off a full toss off his pads onto the stumps, and ringing home and saying, ‘Please erase that from the tape, I don’t want my son to know I was a coward’,” he said.

“I think Stuart Broad might be on the phone later saying, ‘Please erase that from the tape too – I don’t want to see it again’.

“Joe Root’s on 40, doing pretty good, you just need to hang in there.”

Broad was bowled first ball playing all around a searing Mitchell Starc inswinger against Australia last Saturday in England’s only other World Cup match, and he has reached double figures just four times in his past 23 ODI innings, stretching back to September 2010.

Broad, 28, has a highest Test score of 169 and boasts 10 half-centuries to go with that lone hundred, and averages 24.09 in the longest form of the game across 74 matches.

For a time, his batting in England’s lower order was consistently impressive enough to the point that he was pushing ‘bowling allrounder’ status.

Oddly however, his skills with the blade haven’t transferred to the 50-over arena.

In 64 innings, Broad has made 501 runs at 12.52, including 24 not outs. Among those 40 dismissals, an astonishing 30 have been for single figure scores.