Admitting it got “a bit nervy” towards the end, England skipper Harry Brook said he was hoping it would not turn into “another Oval” moment as his side edged past Pakistan to seal a semifinal berth in the T20 World Cup here on Tuesday.
Brook led from the front with a sublime 51-ball 100, guiding England to a narrow two-wicket win in their Super 8 clash and making them the first team to confirm a spot in the semifinals.
“A bit nervy at the end. I was about to say to Baz (Brendon McCullum) ‘hopefully this isn’t another Oval (vs India)’,” Brooks said with reference to his hundred that went in vain when England were denied a record chase by India in the fifth Test at the Kia Oval last year, losing by six runs on the final day as the series ended 2-2.
“We’ve come here to do that job and we got it done. Very happy with the way we played there, and it’s just nice to get through to the semi-finals now and we’ve got one more game against New Zealand and we’ll focus on that, but then the bigger prize will be on the other side,” Brook said.
On Tuesday, the contest tightened after Brook’s dismissal as England lost Will Jacks and Jamie Overton in the 19th over before Jofra Archer struck a boundary to complete the chase of 165 in 19.1 overs.
“Pakistan are good. They’re always good. They’re some of the world-class players in there. They have been for many years. And yeah, like I said, it’s just nice to get over the line.” Brook, promoted to No. 3 for the first time in the tournament, struck 10 fours and four sixes in a commanding innings.
On the move up the order, he said: “It was all Baz (Brendon McCullum). He came to me this morning and said, ‘what do you think about No. 3? Pakistan is your team’.
“We’ve spoken about adapting and changing all sorts throughout this competition and just having the bravery to do that today was awesome.
“We wanted to try and maximise the powerplay a little more. They know I like to take the game on. Thankfully it came off and we got a decent start.” Brook, adjudged Player of the Match, said England would continue striving for improvement as they chase a third World Cup title.
“There’s obviously areas that we still want to improve on and you can never quite get perfection, but we’re always striving for it.
“So, like I said, we’ll look towards the New Zealand game now and our mind is completely on that.” On scoring a World Cup hundred, he added: “I was just happy to be able to hit the ball, to be honest. We were in a tricky situation at the start and then a couple of partnerships there was nice and, like I said, just nice to get over the line.” Pakistan skipper Salman Ali Agha admitted his side fell short with the bat and credited Brook for taking the game away.
“We started well with the bat but couldn’t finish the way we wanted to. But some days you have to give credit to other batters. I think Harry batted brilliantly. Our score was a bit short. And then Brook took the game away from us. We threw everything at him,” he said.
Salman admitted Brook has been their nemesis for some time.
“Whenever we play against England and lose, it’s always him. have to say hats off to him and the way he batted today. Very challenging, the way he batted. He can play all around the ground so it can get challenging. They batted really well against Tariq. They didn’t go hard against him still he got two wickets. The way Nawaz bowled the 19th over, I thought maybe, you never know.” Pakistan need to wait for other results before their last game against Sri Lanka.
“Even if there’s a 1% chance my team will go for it,” Salman said.
