Harry Brook’s 50-ball century guides England past Pakistan to the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup

For all their faults and weaknesses, their fluff and fumbles, England are also the first team to secure a place in the semi-finals of the World Cup. Their place was secured by victory over Pakistan and the sensational Harry Brook century that propelled them there.

After bringing in just one ball in the innings and seeing the rest of England’s top five falter, the England captain turned a crisis into what, despite a couple of late wickets rattling the nerves, became something akin to a cruise.

Brook fell on the last ball of the 17th over, the first after completing his century on his 50th delivery. Several Pakistani players ran up to shake his hand as he left the field, and soon they were shaking hands again: after reaching the crease and being promoted to No. 3 for the first time, before England had even taken a bite of their target of 165, Brook left while they needed 10 from 18. Although Will Jacks and Jamie Overton both fell in the penultimate to give Pakistan a hint of renewed hope, England got there with five to spare to win by two wickets.

Before returning to claim Brook as his fourth victim with his final ball of the game, Shaheen Shah Afridi – considered by many to be a declining force at the age of 25, falling after conceding 31 in two overs against India, and reclaiming a place in the side only because Faheem Ashraf was not fit enough to keep his – had ripped through the rest of England’s top flight in the powerplay.

Once again their openers failed, with both Phil Salt and Jos Buttler ending up in the gloves of Usman Khan after contributing three runs between them. Salt swung at the first ball of the innings and caught it with his outside edge, Buttler lasted until the third over before leaving him behind. Buttler is in truly terrible form, averaging 10.33 in six innings at this tournament. “He is a powerhouse in world cricket, he has done it on every stage, won World Cups, ODIs and T20s,” Brook said. “People need to cut him a little slack. He may be our best player, he’s just not hitting them off center at the moment.”

In this format, teams often only need one top-order batsman to fire, and with the former England captain making a mistake, it was time for his replacement to step up. Perhaps even more motivation came from him dropping a simple catch a little earlier in the middle of the game. Shadab Khan then scored another quickfire 19 and if Pakistan celebrated those runs at that point, they all added fuel to Brook’s fire.

He had a magnificent innings, with fourteen boundaries, perhaps the best of which was the ridiculous back-foot straight drive for six off Mohammad Nawaz. Although Pakistan’s Sahibzada Farhan, the tournament’s top scorer, had previously added another fine innings to his collection – and an excellent audition for all the watching members of the Hundred hierarchy – Brook was on a different level. Having repeatedly spoken of his frustration with England’s tentative batting in this tournament, here he gave the most convincing demonstration of leadership by leading by example.

But for the occasional misfields, England might have had an easier chase, but their feeling was always that Pakistan’s total of 164 for nine was underpowered. Their bowling was largely excellent, with Jofra Archer again setting the tone with an early wicket, with Saim Ayub making a top-edge pull to deep backward square leg from the first ball of the second over off the seam. But an opening period of great ferocity, with few deliveries dipping below 150km/h, was underrewarded, with Pakistan conceding a few boundaries with flukes and edges, although it ended with a few classy ones from Babar Azam.

But after Archer was removed from the attack and Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha had also fallen to Liam Dawson, the runs dried up for a while. Babar, as he does, gobbled up four overs, with no boundaries except that brace from Archer, before misjudging a heave against Overton and losing his off-stump bail after scoring 25 off 24.

Despite all this, Farhan stayed, and he really seemed to kick into gear when he hit Overton for six long on and the next ball through cover for four with ominous force, taking his team to 122 to three. Three overs later it was 149 for eight, with Overton causing a collapse by firing a yorker to leg stump that bounced off Farhan’s pad.

Pakistan’s total would have been even lower had it not been for an unusual number of errors and misfields from England, with that drop in the Brook not even the most notable, although it was a problem that Pakistan later shared. Twice, the normally immaculate Jacob Bethell ran the ball toward the rope when it should have been easily stopped, and he would later become the beneficiary of the night’s moment of maximum awkwardness.

The 22-year-old was on six when he sent a looping top edge into the night sky; Usman Tariq sat under it, waited for it to fall, stretched out his hands and somehow made it squirm away. Bethell even laughed as the ball crashed onto the turf. England remain a flawed team, but somehow things fall their way.