On May 7, Stuart Broad gave up the ‘Bazball’ approach to go on a blocking spree as Nottinghamshire needed to go on defensive mode to draw the match against Lancashire. Broad who has established himself as ‘Nighthawk’ – a nightwatchman batter who is aggressive – scored just three runs from 50 balls to salvage a draw for Nottinghamshire. While the game ended in a draw, Broad was trolled by his teammate Joe Root and former England cricketer Paul Collingwood.
On Day 4 of the County Championship Division One 2023 clash, Nottinghamshire suffered a batting collapse. From 52/2, they lost four wickets for just four runs. Towards the end of day's play, they lost three wickets as well. Broad being the senior batter had the responsibility to rescue Nottinghamshire. In familiar batting conditions of Trent Bridge, Nottingham, Broad played as many as three maiden overs against Lancashire’s pace bowling spearhead James Anderson.
Taking to Instagram, Root who made his Indian Premier League (IPL) debut on May 7 for Rajasthan Royals (RR) posted a screenshot of the game's commentary where Broad played a maiden over against Anderson. He shared the screenshot with caption reading: feeling ok nighthawk?
Broad’s former teammate Collingwood was quick to give him a new nickname – Brigadier Block – in the comments section. Fast bowler Saqib Mahmood also responded with a laughing emoji.
Out of Nottinghamshire's nine wickets in the second innings, Anderson was responsible for three of them including opener Haseeb Hameed, wicketkeeper-batter Joe Clarke and Brett Hutton. While Hameed got out early in the innings, Clarke and Hutton had played himself in before becoming Anderson's victims. Broad walked out to bat with 13.4 overs remaining in the day's play.
In the end of the innings, Broad was supported by Luke Fletcher who scored one run from 14 balls. However, Fletcher got out in the dying moments of day's play. No.11 batter Olly Stone defended the last five balls from Hartley to prevent his team from losing.
While Broad played defensively in the second innings, he lived up to the nighthawk title in the first. The tailender scored 26 runs from 24 balls including five fours in the first innings.
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