Attack is the best defence for Broad

England's saviour with the bat after a top-order collapse, pacer Stuart Broad says he managed his rescue act by counter-attacking the rampaging Indian bowlers on the opening day of the ongoing second Test in Nottingham.

- Scorecard

Tottering at 124 for eight at tea, Broad's half century helped England to 221 all out.

"We decided to grab the momentum back with our natural game. We decided to hit it if it was in my area. If there was a sort of width, I was going to throw my hands at it," he said.

"It was still swinging but we wanted to throw their bowlers off their line and length. That was our tactics and it paid off for us," he added.

Broad, who top-scored with a vital 64, said the home team bowlers would be hoping to make some early inroads into the Indian batting line up on a seamer-friendly Trent Bridge wicket.

The Indian pace trio of Praveen Kumar (3/45), Ishant Sharma (3/66) and S Sreesanth (3/77) exploited the seaming conditions to perfection throughout the day.

In reply, the visitors also lost opener Abhinav Mukund in the very first ball of the innings to James Anderson and Broad said the English bowlers would be looking forward to some early wickets in the first session.

"We were hoping for another wicket, we beat the bat enough. There were plays and misses which could have been nicked. But the bowlers are champing a bit to get in tomorrow and get some nicks," Broad said.

"The good thing was that we didn't chase wicket (this evening). We held it tight. We need to make early inroads in the first session tomorrow as it generally swings here in the morning," Broad added.

"It always swings in here but there is also bounce in the track. There is enough in it for the bowlers. The way Graeme Swann was out (ball rearing up at him), is actually a lot of encouragement for us," he said.

"Even if its' sunshine here, it would still swing. It is not like Lord's. May be it would just swing enough to get edges and not (swing) quite a lot for plays and misses. So it's positive even if its sunny," Broad added.

Broad was of the view that toss played a crucial role as India find themselves in a better position at the close of play.

"They (India) would probably be the happier of the two camps. It was a big toss to win (for India) but we had done well to be just two wickets down at lunch. I would not blame the batsmen there were some good deliveries in there," Broad said.

"Our top order batted well against the new ball. If they had their guns blazing they could have nicked it. At Lord's we had to battle hard and we got through that period and here we were not successful in doing so," he added.

Broad also had words of praise for S Sreesanth, who came in the side as replacement for injured Zaheer Khan.

"He (Sreesanth) bowled very nicely. Given a chance he would bowl at Trent Bridge every week. He had a fantastic seam position and swung it. Our bowler would look to emulate him tomorrow," he said.