We can take credit for picking up four wickets - Stuart Broad

England fast bowler Stuart Broad reckons that England can take heart from the fact that they were able to pick up four wickets on a flat pitch in the first day of the first Test match against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi.

England were not up to the mark on day one, dropping two catches and seeing the wicket of Shoaib Malik fall off a no ball.

Malik went on to score an unbeaten hundred and has put Pakistan firmly in the driver’s seat at the end of play on the first day.

Broad opined England were positive throughout the day but was disappointed that they were unable to fully capitalise on the chances they had.

“It is hard, I must admit," he said.

“We were always positive, we were always looking to try and take wickets.

“When you play an Ashes series with a lot of crowd at home, a lot gets you through the day.

“Whereas here it is all about your inner ticker.

“So I think we can take a huge amount of credit for how we've gone about it today.

“We were disappointed with a couple of missed opportunities."

The no ball bowled to Malik was delivered by Broad himself and he is taking full blame for having denied England an opportunity to pick a crucial wicket.

“I have to take the full responsibility for bowling a no ball.

“You can’t afford to do that in these sort of pitches.

“If we can make the new ball pay tomorrow, it is a pretty good day.”

In 2015, England have bowled 23 no balls in 11 Test matches out of which six no balls resulted in a wicket which was then overturned.

Broad is not sure why the tendency to bowl no balls has crept in and stressed the importance of taking regular feedback from the umpire regarding the foot position.

“It is something we do monitor in training, but it seems to be that in the last six or seven months it has crept in a bit more.

“I am not sure why that is.

“There is different reasons why it can happen.

“Sometimes a gusty wind comes in and knocks you off your stride pattern a bit.

“The key is to try and check where your foot is (for) most balls so you are always getting a bit of a feedback from the umpire."

Broad is confident that if England can strike early with the new ball on day two, they will be in a position to restrict Pakistan to a below par total.

“It is unacceptable for me today to do that (bowl a no ball).

“But we have got four wickets on a wicket where, looking at previous scores, 550 or 570 is a decent score in the first innings.

“If we can bowl well tomorrow and expose the tail we could be in a decent position.”

Ian Bell dropped two chances at slip while Mohammad Hafeez made full use of the reprieve and scored 98.

Revealing that Bell is very disappointed with his efforts, Broad dismissed the suggestion that such drops were due to lack of practice.

"Ian Bell is disappointed.

“He has his head in his hands in the changing room at the moment.

“It is one of the things that catches go down, but it is certainly not for the lack of practice.

“The guys have been working incredibly hard.

“The first was quite a tricky catch at low left.

“The second he would hope to catch 99 times out of 100.

“But hopefully with that new ball tomorrow we can create a couple more chances.”

On day one, Broad returned figures of one for 30 from the 14 overs he bowled, sending down 71 dot balls while conceding four boundaries.

© Cricket World 2015