Nottingham, UK: Stuart Broad took eight wickets as Australia collapsed to a scarcely credible 60 all out on the first day of the fourth Test at Trent Bridge on Thursday.

Cloudy overhead conditions offered some assistance to swing and seam bowlers and doubtless prompted England captain Alastair Cook’s decision to field first.

But they were not ‘unplayable’. 

Well though Broad, on his Nottinghamshire home ground, bowled in taking a Test-best eight for 15 in 9.3 overs, this innings cemented the reputation of Australia’s batsmen as ‘flat-track bullies’.

They again proved unable to come to terms with the moving ball in a match they have to at least draw to stop England taking an unbeatable 3-1 lead in the five-match Ashes series.

Broad finished the innings by having Nathan Lyon caught in the slips. 

Eight Australia batsmen were caught in the cordon—all off Broad—and one by wicket-keeper Jos Buttler, with Peter Nevill bowled by Steven Finn.

Mitchell Johnson (13) and Australia captain Michael Clarke (10) were the only batsmen to make double-figure scores in an innings that was wrapped up in just 18.3 overs—the quickest any team has ever been bowled out in the first innings of a Test—during a stunning 94 minutes’ play in Nottingham.

Australia’s total—with extras the top score on 14 -- was the lowest by either side in an Ashes innings since England were dismissed for 52 at The Oval in 1948.

At lunch, England were 13 without loss. Adam Lyth was eight not out—after cover-driving the last ball of the session, from Mitchell Starc, for four—and Alastair Cook, the England captain, four not out.

‘Unbelievable’ 

“It’s pretty unbelievable. It’s not sunk in,” Broad told Sky Sports after drawing level with England great Fred Trueman’s career tally of 307 Test wickets.

“We knew Trent Bridge would offer us something but we had to bowl well and take our catches.”

Broad, leading the attack in the absence of the injured James Anderson—England’s all-time leading wicket-taker—needed just three balls on his Nottinghamshire home ground to take his 300^th Test wicket when opener Chris Rogers, on nought, edged to Cook at first slip. 

It was the first duck of Rogers’s 46-innings career in Test cricket. 

Four balls after becoming just the fifth England bowler after Anderson, Ian Botham, Bob Willis and Trueman to take 300 Test wickets, Broad struck again when Steven Smith, aiming legside, was held by Joe Root at third slip for six. 

Durham quick Mark Wood, in for Anderson, needed just two balls to take his lone wicket of the innings.

Wood had David Warner, Rogers’s fellow left-handed opener, caught behind by wicket-keeper Jos Buttler off the inside edge.

Rogers and Wood became the first Australia openers to both fall for ducks in an Ashes Test innings since Arthur Morris and Jack Moroney at Brisbane in 1950. 

Top-order batsman Shaun Marsh, brought in to replace dropped younger brother Mitchell, then fell for a duck when he was caught in the slips by Ian Bell off Broad. 

And the 29-year-old Broad then had Adam Voges (one) brilliantly caught one-handed by diving fifth slip Ben Stokes to leave Australia 21 for five in the fifth over. 

Clarke’s desperate run of form continued when, driving loosely outside off stump against Broad, he was well caught by a leaping Cook at first slip to leave Australia 29 for six. 

The 34-year-old Clarke’s exit meant one of the best batsmen of his generation had now managed just 104 runs in seven innings this series.

It also left Clarke contemplating the prospect of becoming the first Australian in over a century to be on the losing side in four successive Ashes series in England.

By taking five wickets in 19 balls, Broad surpassed Vernon Philander’s five in 25 balls for South Africa against New Zealand at Cape Town in 2013 as the quickest ‘five for’ at the start of a Test innings.

It also threatened to be another match-winning Ashes spell from Broad to match those he had produced at The Oval in 209 and Chester-le-Street in 2013.