by Our Sports Desk

Stuart Broad apologised to his teammates yesterday for the no-ball which reprieved Shoaib Malik on the way to his century, as England paid dearly for missed chances against Pakistan.

Broad hopes the tourists are still in a feasible position, after their hosts finished day one of the three-Test series on 286 for four at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium.

But he admitted too it all could have been much better, had he not overstepped for the delivery which Shoaib edged to third slip on 40 and Ian Bell not also put down two catches at second.

Shoaib reached stumps on 124 not out, having shared a second-wicket stand of 168 with Mohammad Hafeez — meaning the opportunities England let slip have cost them 175 runs and counting.

Alastair Cook hatched a successful plan to get rid of Pakistan’s new all-time leading run-scorer Younus Khan, caught by himself at short mid-on off Broad.

The England captain then had to go off to have split webbing next to his little finger glued, after hurting himself in the field, but is expected to be fit to take part again on Wednesday morning.

Broad therefore found himself reflecting on a day of significantly mixed fortunes and conceded it is no help when chances go begging in the searing heat and on the unresponsive surfaces of the Gulf.

“We all know, having played a little bit of cricket over here, you can’t afford to have to try to take 26 or 27 wickets — you need to just have to take your 20, to win a Test match,” he said.

His no-ball was marginal but nonetheless, he insists, inexcusable.

“I can’t think of many occasions I’ve had one chalked off,” Broad added.

“I’m not really a big no-ball bowler.

“(But) there’s no real excuses for it. I said sorry at tea to the guys.”

Wickets taken away because of no-balls are a modern phenomenon, in the era of instant availability of video replay to the third umpire, and Broad acknowledges England need to break a costly habit.

This year alone, it has happened to them six times.

“We’ve probably had six or seven in the last eight or nine Tests so it’s something we definitely need to improve on,” he said.

“We’re pretty strict in practice with our no-ball bowling.

“One thing we could maybe bring in is making sure we have an umpire for every training session but I don’t know if that’s logistically possible.”