The brothers scored centuries and shared a 252-run partnership after coming together when Otago was in dire straits at 33 for four on the third day of the Plunket Shield game against Northern Districts.
Older brother Neil was the first to bring up his century and he was swiftly followed by Darren, who scored his second century in just his third game for Otago. It was Neil's ninth first-class century, and he will be at the crease today as Otago looks to set Northern Districts a chase.
Darren has scored three ducks in his other innings for Otago.
"It was a bit of a battle early on. We were four down for not many so we had to do a bit of hard yakka," Darren said.
"But the deck has flattened out a bit which helped us.
"It's always fun batting with my brother. He's pretty laid-back and makes it pretty relaxed. I've never batted that long with him apart from maybe a couple of digs we had back at high school."
The brothers played for the Christchurch Boys' High School First XI.
Darren said he was disappointed to get out for 112, as the pair had set a target of staying together until stumps.
The partnership was an Otago record for the fifth wicket against Northern Districts, shattering the mark of 123 set by Russell Hendry and Lance Pearson in 1961-62. It was only eight runs short of the record for any wicket against Northern Districts, set by Rob Lawson and Mohammad Wasim in 2002-03.
The brothers were just 14 runs short of the record Otago fifth-wicket partnership of 266 set by Bert Sutcliffe and Bill Haig against Auckland in 1949-1950. Sutcliffe scored 355 in that match.
Neil resumes on 134 this morning with Otago 309 for seven, an overall lead of 235 runs.
Otago will look to push on in an attempt to set Northern a target on the final day on a pitch which may give some assistance to Otago spinners Nathan McCullum and Nick Beard.
That scenario looked like a distant dream early yesterday.
After starting two wickets down with just four runs on the board, Shaun Haig and Nick Beard went early and Otago was struggling before the Broom brothers' heroics.
Northern Districts seamer Graeme Aldridge is one wicket short of a 10-wicket bag after another impressive effort yesterday.
• Canterbury has a 277-run lead going into the fourth and final day of its match against Auckland in Christchurch.
The home side eased to 131 for three in its second innings yesterday, with Michael Papps making an unbeaten 63.
• A record seventh-wicket partnership of 187 between Kruger van Dyk (95) and Doug Bracewell (97) reinstated Central Districts' superiority against Wellington in Napier yesterday.
Central made 317, setting Wellington a challenging target of 405 to win. Wellington ended the day at 61 for one.
