In the last moments of the T20 World Cup semifinal, which the co-hosts won by 7 runs, India pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah squeezed a tight over with a barrage of precise yorkers, earning from England captain Harry Brook the title of “best of all time at the minute.”
According to Brook, it’s difficult to defeat India because they also have some very talented batters “coming out of everywhere.”
Thanks to a spectacular 42-ball 89 from Sanju Samson, defending champions India amassed a record 253/7. England responded forcefully with the bat but ultimately finished on 246/7 to lose by 7 runs in an exciting finish. After his four overs, Bumrah returned with figures of 1/33.
“Yeah, it’s tough. They just have batsmen coming out of everywhere. They have got some extremely good players, they are clean ball-strikers. If you miss, you go for six or four,” PTI quoted Brook as saying after the match in Mumbai on Thursday.
In the third over of the Indian innings, Brook dropped Samson on 15, and the missed opportunity significantly affected the game’s result.
“I will hold my hands up and say that I made a big mistake there dropping Samson. Unfortunately, it didn’t go our way in the field today. Unfortunately, we didn’t probably execute as well as we could have done and that’s cost us slightly alongside with some drop catches in there as well,” the England skipper said after the match.
Despite this, England put up a strong comeback under ideal batting conditions to stay in the match to the very end. At one point, centurion Jacob Bethell (105) had to score 45 runs from 18 balls.
However, Bumrah’s precise yorkers in the 18th over allowed just six runs, leaving England with the unlikely task of scoring 39 runs in the last two overs.
“He’s a very good bowler, arguably the best of all time at the minute. He’s been a very good bowler for a long time. The Indians (also) fielded extremely well, that catch (of Axar Patel to dismiss him) is arguably one of the best catches I’ve seen as well so yeah, hats off to them,” Brook said of Bumrah.
Brook stated that England’s “amazing campaign” is something to be proud of.
“Disappointed, but extremely proud. Couldn’t ask for much more as a captain to be honest. I think we’ve had an amazing campaign. As I said the other day, we’re never out of games and that’s proven again tonight (Thursday). We were in the game all the way until the last over. I’m just extremely proud of the boys and all the boys should be extremely proud of themselves as well,” he said.
England scored 99/2 in seven overs of spin from India after Varun Chakravarthy gave up 64 runs for one wicket in his four overs, which is jointly the second-highest for any Indian bowler in Twenty20 Internationals. It was “funny” to be praised for their performance against spinners, but it was also “smarts” in cricket, according to Brook.
“It’s funny because every time we get asked about spinners you are usually slagging us off, so it’s nice to have a compliment about it for once. We identified that Chakravarthy is (bowling) probably short and Bethell put him away early on and as every bowler does, he tried to go a bit fuller and he hit him for a six back over his head. It’s just the cricket smarts and just trying to figure out what their bowling attack is trying to do and the match-ups as well,” he said.
Additionally, Brook fully supported Brendon McCullum, the head coach of England, who has been under pressure following their dismal performance in the Ashes. “125 per cent” was Brook’s response when asked if he would support the former New Zealand captain in his role as head coach of England.
“I’ve said plenty of times he’s the best coach I’ve ever had (and the) best head coach I’ve ever had. The way that he speaks to everybody — he’s got an aura in the dressing room — everybody looks up to him and the things that he did in the game as a player was unbelievable and he just carried that into his coaching. The things that he’s done over the four years that he’s took over, has changed English cricket for hopefully the best,” the England skipper added.
