New Delhi, Feb 24 (IANS) Skipper Harry Brook pulled off a remarkable rescue act with a breathtaking 100 off 51 deliveries batting for the first time at No. 3, as England qualified for the semifinals of the T20 World Cup after beating Pakistan by wickets in the Group 2 match of the Super 8s at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in Kandy, Sri Lanka, on Tuesday.
Promoted up the order for the first time in his T20I career, Brook responded with authority, smashing 41 of England’s 53 Power-play runs and keeping the contest alive almost single-handedly, becoming the first skipper in T20 WC history to score a century.
With this, Brook became the first captain to score a T20 World Cup century, and with that, has lifted England to their fifth consecutive semi-final — a feat no one has achieved before.
England restricted Pakistan to 164/9 in 20 overs, built on Sahibzada Farhan’s 63 and Fakhar Zaman’s 25. Liam Dawson claimed 3-24 while Jamie Overton picked 2-26 for England. Chasing the modest total, England rode on Brook’s 100 and Will Jacks’ 28 to reach 166/8 in 19.1 overs and win the match. Shaheen Shah Afridi kept Pakistan in the hunt with 4-30 while Usman Tariq took 2-31. But in the end, their effort was not enough.
Numbers game from the Pakistan vs England match:
2 – Sahibzada Farhan (63) became the second batter after Babar Azam to have three or more 50-plus scores in a World Cup edition. Babar Azam scored four fifty-plus scores in the 2021 edition.
10 – The number of half-centuries scored by Sahibzada Farhan (63) in 45 T20Is. It was his second in 6 T20WC matches.
13 – The number of sixes hit by Sahibzada Farhan in this T20 World Cup 2026. This is the most for Pakistan in a single edition of the T20 WC. Farhan bettered the record of Mohammad Rizwan, who hit 12 sixes in the 2021 edition.
62 – The number of runs scored by Jos Buttler at an avg of 10.33 in the current WC.His worst performance in an ICC tournament
6 – Phil Salt recorded his 6th duck in 58T20Is. It was his first against Pakistan in 11 matches.
1st – Shaheen Afridi became the first Pakistani bowler to pick a wicket off the first ball of a T20WC innings.
Ist – In the history of T20WCs, Harry Brook (100) became the first captain to hit a century. Earlier, Chris Gayle set the record when he scored 98 v India at Bridgetown in the 2010 edition.
100 – Playing in his 61st T20Is, Harry Brook (100) recorded his highest score, bettering his previous best of 81* also against Pakistan in Karachi in Sep 2022.
Compiled by Manoj Kumar
–IANS
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