The last few months haven’t been kind to Harry Brook. Many would say that’s his own doing. The ghosts of the night out in Wellington at the start of November had not left him since, prompting several apologies – first for going out on the eve of leading his team in an ODI and getting punched by a nightclub bouncer, and then for lying to protect his teammates.
It didn’t help that he hadn’t done much with the bat since, either in the Ashes – where the manner of some of his dismissals had England supporters pulling their hair – or in the T20 World Cup till now.
But the England skipper chose Tuesday to make a statement as a batsman and a leader as his 51-ball 100 almost single-handedly took England to the semifinals with a two-wicket win over Pakistan in Pallekele with five balls to spare.
AS IT HAPPENED | ENGLAND VS PAKISTAN T20 WORLD CUP 2026 SUPER 8 HIGHLIGHTS
After the washout against New Zealand, Pakistan now need to beat Sri Lanka and hope for other results to go their way to have a chance of progress.
England had been scratchy throughout the tournament and didn’t play the perfect game on Tuesday either. Their fielding was well below par, and their chase of 165 had got off to a poor start as Shaheen Shah Afridi showed some of the prowess he has been known for, taking three powerplay wickets to reduce the two-time champions to 35/3 inside five overs.
England spinner Liam Dawson picked up three wickets against Pakistan. (PHOTO: AP)
Brook walked out to bat after Phil Salt was dismissed off the first ball of the innings – the first time he had batted at No.3 in his T20I career – and the captain counter-attacked with aplomb even as wickets continued to fall at the other end, scoring 100 of the 155 runs scored while he was in the middle. His knock can be put in proper context as none of the other batsmen in the top five reached double figures. In fact, apart from Brook, who got out with 10 runs left to get and saw two more wickets fall to engineer a nervy finish, only Will Jacks (28) and Sam Curran (16) did.
Attack is the best defence
The regular departure of his teammates never fazed Brook as he got to work with a boundary and a six off left-arm seamer Salman Mirza in the second over. Pace or spin, offside or onside, all were treated with equal disdain. He, by and large, targeted the straight boundaries – even off the back foot – and often made room to hit over the offside. The sweep was also put to good effect, and the number of twos that England ran on the large field had Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha frustrated.
But it was not all indiscriminate hitting. Recognising that mystery spinner Usman Tariq was a major threat, the England captain played him relatively cautiously. Afridi (4/30) and Tariq (2/31) were Pakistan’s main weapons on the day, but the other spinners – Saim Ayub, Mohammad Nawaz and Shadab Khan – hardly had any meaningful impact when it really mattered.
Despite losing wickets, the required run rate was always under control, and once Brook had a stable ally in Jacks, their 52-run stand off 31 balls more or less settled the matter.
In the first 20 overs, there were ground-fielding errors and the rare dropped catch, but Pakistan were always behind the par score on the surface. Sahibzada Farhan, their best batsman in the tournament, was the main contributor here also, but was dismissed for a 45-ball 63 with more than four overs left.
As for Babar Azam, he looked to mean business when he came in at 27/2 in the fourth over, but a 24-ball 25 didn’t serve Pakistan’s purpose.
England have a match against the Kiwis before the semifinals and would hope Jos Buttler gets into some kind of rhythm after looking woefully short of form again.
Brief scores: Pakistan 164/9 in 20 overs (Sahibzada Farhan 63; Liam Dawson 3/24) lost to England 166/8 in 19.1 overs (Harry Brook 100; Shaheen Shah Afridi 4/30) by two wickets
