Broad delighted with clinical England

Stuart Broad is congratulated by his England team-mates after capturing the wicket of West Indies opener Lendl Simmons

Stuart Broad praised a “great team effort” after England coasted to a six-wicket victory over the misfiring West Indies at Bristol today, to take an unassailable 1-0 NatWest Series lead.

Broad took 4-46 as the tourists were all out for 160 in double-quick time, and the England bowler was delighted with his performance.

“It’s a very tough series, we knew we had to hit them hard at the start,” said the Nottinghamshire bowler. “And we’ve managed to do that.

“Our aim was to pick up early wickets and try to squeeze them through the middle period and that worked for us.

“The fact that we managed quite comfortably is very pleasing. It’s a very happy changing room at the minute and it’s a great team effort.”

Broad was also full of praise for new-ball partner James Anderson.

He added: “Bowling is all about partnerships as batting is. We feel we’ve done well together, we’ve got great confidence in what we do and it’s pleasing that we’re picking up early wickets because that can only help the team.

“Jimmy is in great form and he’s shown that throughout the summer and hopefully I can continue throughout all the very important cricket coming up.

“It’s a great start but we’ve got a massive game coming up Tuesday to win this series leading into a massive World Cup and obviously the Ashes. So we’re very focused.”

England captain Andrew Strauss was impressed by his bowling duo.

“They’re both revelling in leading the attack,” he said. “They’re trying different things out and they’re both confident.

“We’ve got two quality performers out there and the longer they continue that progression the better for us.”

Paul Collingwood was England's unlikely hero with the ball after Broad and James Anderson's initial fire with the new nut

Strauss is looking to close out the series with another good performance at Edgbaston on Tuesday to cement confidence in the camp ahead of an important summer of cricket.

He added: “It’s never easy I think we just got off to a good start today. We put them under pressure right from ball one and we were pretty clinical again.

“Things are pretty good in the camp at the moment and we’ve got a good chance to hopefully finish off the series.

“It’s gone really well so far. I can’t fault the lads, the guys have been putting in a lot of effort.

“We know there’s some pretty important cricket coming up but things are going nicely at the moment.”

Strauss’ West Indies counterpart admits his team are downbeat at the moment.

Chris Gayle has urged them to put the defeat behind them as quickly as possible and change things around for the final game of the series.

“It’s a bad day in the office,” he said. “But we have a final to play on Tuesday so we have to try to put this behind us. It’s bad for morale, really bad.

“We just have to try to find a different formula for the next game and see what happens. We can’t continue like this.

“It’s a final for us. We have to do something, see what happens in the next game.”