Brook’s first T20 century propels England into World Cup semifinals

PALLEKELE, Sri Lanka (AP) — Harry Brook hadn’t exactly been firing at the Twenty20 World Cup. England scraped into the Super Eights and the captain’s contribution before Tuesday was 102 runs in five games with one half-century.

Coach Brendon McCullum stopped Brook in the morning and suggested he move up the batting order from No. 5 to No. 3. “Pakistan is your team,” McCullum posed as a carrot.

Brook took the bait and validated the move with his maiden T20 century as England beat Pakistan by two wickets and reached an unprecedented fifth consecutive World Cup semifinals.

Brook’s even 100 propelled England to 166-8, overhauling Pakistan’s 164-9 with five balls to spare.

“We’ve come here to do that job (reach the semifinals) and we got it done,” he said.

They did it with a game to spare in the Super Eights.

England’s chase started shakily. Shaheen Shah Afridi dismissed Phil Salt, Jos Buttler and Jacob Bethell in the powerplay and eclipsed Haris Rauf as the team’s highest ever T20 wicket-taker. Then when Tom Banton was caught behind off spinner Usman Tariq, England was 58-4.

Brook took on Pakistan, aggressive from the start. With support from Sam Curran and Will Jacks he reached 50 runs off 28 balls, charged past his previous T20 high of 81 against Pakistan in 2022, and reached the milestone 100 off 50 balls.

“I was just happy to get the job done, to be honest,” Brook said. “We were in a tricky situation to start.”

England’s XI was unchanged for the fifth straight match but McCullum wanted to shake up the order and Brook by playing his captain at first drop.

“We wanted to try and maximize the powerplay a little more,” Brook said. “They know I like to take the game on. Thankfully it came off.”

After notching a century in all three formats, Brook was out the next ball, bowled when he missed a yorker in Afridi’s return spell.

Afridi, who took 4-30 and has 135 T20 wickets (two more than Rauf), shook Brook’s hand and the captain walked off to an ovation.

Brook smacked 10 boundaries and four sixes to leave England 10 runs from victory.

England lost two more wickets to left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz before Archer sealed the game by pulling left-arm fast bowler Salman Mirza for four off the first ball of the final over.

Pakistan chose to bat first on a fresh pitch but opener Sahibzada Farhan’s 63 off 45 balls was the only score more than 25. Pakistan was restricted to a sub-par total.

England express pacer Jofra Archer grabbed 2-32 and spinners Liam Dawson and Adil Rashid slowed the run rate through the middle overs. Dawson picked 3-24.

“Our score was a bit short,” Pakistan captain Salman Agha said. “And then Brook took the game away from us. We threw everything at him. Harry batted brilliantly. Whenever we play against England and lose, it’s always him.”

Pakistan has had a washout and a loss and still has to play Sri Lanka in Group 2. Its chances of advancing will also depend on others.

England has won all five of its games in Pallekele in the last 3 1/2 weeks and will finish the Super Eights in Colombo against New Zealand on Friday.

New Zealand plays Sri Lanka there on Wednesday.

___

AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket