Harry Brook delivered a spectacular century as England triumphed over Pakistan by 2 wickets in their crucial T20 World Cup Super 8 encounter. Brook’s magnificent 100 from merely 51 balls propelled England to become the first nation securing a semifinal berth. Despite Shaheen Afridi’s impressive four-wicket haul, Pakistan couldn’t prevent their elimination. Previously, Sahibzada Farhan’s outstanding 63 guided Pakistan to 164/9 across their 20 overs. Babar Azam and Fakhar Zaman contributed 25 runs apiece to strengthen their total. England’s bowling attack was spearheaded by Liam Dawson’s three-wicket performance, supported by Jofra Archer and Jamie Overton who secured two wickets each. Harry Brook’s Super Century Shattered Pakistan Bowlers To Reach Semi Final .
TOSS-
Pakistan secured the toss and elected to bat first
PLAYING XI-
England (Playing XI):
Philip Salt, Jos Buttler(w), Jacob Bethell, Tom Banton, Harry Brook(c), Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Liam Dawson, Jamie Overton, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid
Pakistan (Playing XI):
Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Salman Agha(c), Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Usman Khan(w), Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Afridi, Salman Mirza, Usman Tariq
PAKISTAN-
On yet another turn-friendly wicket in Pallakele, Pakistan chose to bat and establish a competitive score. Sahibzada Farhan, who has anchored Pakistan’s batting throughout this competition, needed to deliver again following disappointing performances from Saim Ayub and Salman Agha. Ayub perished to a top edge while trying to hook Jofra Archer, and Agha departed courtesy of Liam Dawson in the subsequent over. This created space for Babar Azam to enter at number four and assert his influence. Nevertheless, Farhan dominated the scoring during the Powerplay, finding boundaries against Jamie Overton, Archer and Dawson. Babar contributed with consecutive fours off Archer to begin positively.
Following the Powerplay phase, Babar found England’s spin attack challenging. Adil Rashid, who has consistently troubled him previously, created difficulties once more as Pakistan’s star batsman failed to decode the seasoned English spinner. This mounting pressure ultimately led to Babar’s dismissal for 25 from 24 deliveries, bowled by Overton during a desperate attempt to accelerate. Fakhar Zaman emerged with aggressive intentions, providing Pakistan the momentum they required. Farhan and Zaman each struck maximums off Will Jacks before the opener completed another tournament fifty.
Positioned strongly at 112/3 after 15 overs for a powerful finale, Pakistan seemed to be establishing an unreachable target when Farhan launched consecutive boundaries. However, Overton mounted an impressive fightback with a yorker-length delivery that trapped the opener leg-before. Although Rashid conceded two maximums in the next over, England maintained pressure through regular breakthroughs to restrict Pakistan. Dawson emerged as the standout bowler with impressive figures of 3/24. Shadab Khan contributed crucial lower-order runs to push Pakistan beyond 160.
ENGLAND-
The target of 165 itself looked more than enough when England started their innings, and further events proved this assessment correct. Basically, Afridi came back and did the same thing – he controlled the game during the Powerplay overs. He actually got Phil Salt out on the very first ball for zero runs and Jos Buttler definitely had bad luck again as he hit a weak shot straight to the wicket-keeper. Jacob Bethell got out next as per his shot to the deep fielder, regarding his score of just 8 runs. We are seeing Brook playing very well at the other end, making 41 runs in the Powerplay only after moving himself to number 3 position. He began with a four and six from Salman Mirza and we are seeing he used the fielding rules well by hitting Mohammad Nawaz all around in the last over of Powerplay only.
Moreover, pakistan’s key bowler Usman Tariq surely kept his team’s hopes alive by taking a wicket in his first over, reducing England to 58 runs for 4 wickets. Moreover, this breakthrough came at a crucial moment when Pakistan needed to maintain pressure on their opponents. England surely remained in the game with their strong batting order, moreover Brook was still playing aggressively in the middle. The England captain surely dominated the Pakistan spinners by hitting boundaries freely, moreover he played carefully against Tariq’s bowling. Tariq surely took another wicket by dismissing Sam Curran, but Jacks made up for his weak bowling performance. Moreover, Jacks hit the ball over the boundary very early when he came to bat.
Basically, Jacks and Brooks played the same confident way with no worries, and Jacks even hit Tariq for a six to show his control. As per the match situation, Agha brought back Afridi for his last over regarding the need for a wicket. As per Brook’s batting approach, he came forward and hit the ball over wide long on for six runs, then scored a boundary to complete his first century in T20 matches. Regarding this achievement, it was his maiden three-figure score in T20 International cricket. The left-arm fast bowler did get the England captain out on the very next ball with a perfect yorker, but we are seeing that the damage was already done as England only needed 10 more runs.
Even though England was winning easily, we are seeing them play carelessly at the end and lose wickets in a silly way, which made the match tense in the last over where they needed only 3 runs with 2 wickets left. Archer actually finished the game by hitting the first ball for a boundary. He definitely put the match to bed with that shot.
Brief scores:
We are seeing Pakistan making only 164 runs for 9 wickets in 20 overs, with Sahibzada Farhan scoring 63 runs, while England chased the target and made 166 runs for 8 wickets in only 19.1 overs with Harry Brook’s brilliant 100 runs to win by 2 wickets.
About the Author
