By Devarchit Varma
Mumbai, March 6
England captain Harry Brook described Jasprit Bumrah as the “best of all time at the minute” after the India pace spearhead squeezed a tight over with a barrage of accurate yorkers towards the fag end of the T20 World Cup semifinal, which the co-hosts won by seven runs here.
Brook said it’s tough to beat India as they also have some extremely good batters “coming out of everywhere”.
Defending champions India piled up a record 253/7, thanks to a stunning 42-ball 89 from Sanju Samson, before restricting England to 246 for 7 for a seven-run win in the T20 World Cup semifinal here Thursday night. Bumrah returned with figures of 1/33 from his four overs.
“Yeah, it’s tough. They just have batsmen coming out of everywhere. They’ve got some extremely good players (and) they’re clean ball-strikers. If you miss, you go for (a) six or (a) four,” Brook told the media after the match.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t probably execute as well as we could have done, and that’s cost us slightly, alongside some drop catches in there as well.”
Brook dropped Samson while on 15 in the third over of the Indian innings, and the missed opportunity had a big impact on the outcome of the game.
England, nevertheless, staged a spirited response in perfect batting conditions to remain in the game till the end. They needed 45 runs from 18 balls at one stage, with centurion Jacob Bethell (105) going strong.
But Bumrah squeezed a tight 18th over to allow only six runs, nailing his yorkers with pin-point accuracy, which left England with the improbable task of 39 runs to score from the final two overs.
“He’s a very good bowler, arguably the best of all time at the minute,” Brook said of Bumrah.
“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 England can be proud of their “amazing campaign”.
“Disappointed, but extremely proud. Couldn’t ask for much more as a captain, to be honest. I think we’ve had an amazing campaign,” he said.
“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.”
Brook lavished praise on the 22-year-old Bethell, whose century gave England a lot of hope for the future.
“He’s a phenomenal player. As we’ve seen tonight in a high-pressure situation against India on their home turf as well. The way that he played that innings there was just phenomenal,” he said.
“He’s going to have a hell of a career with England. I’m looking forward to hopefully spending a lot of time with him in the future,” Brook said.
With Varun Chakravarthy conceding 64 runs for one wicket in his four overs for the joint second-highest for any Indian bowler in T20Is, England garnered a total of 99/2 in seven overs of spin from India.
Brook said while it was “funny” to be complimented about their achievement against spinners, it was also cricket “smarts”.
“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,” he said.
“We identified that Chakravarthy’s 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 to 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.”
Brook also stood firmly behind England head coach Brendon McCullum, who has been under fire since their poor show in the Ashes. Asked if he would back the former New Zealand captain to continue as England head coach, Brook replied “125 per cent”.
“I’ve said plenty of times he’s the best coach I’ve ever had (and the) best head coach I’ve ever had,” Brook said.
“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 were unbelievable, and he just carried that into his coaching.
“The things that he’s done over the four years that he’s taken over have changed English cricket for hopefully the best,” the England skipper added.
PTI
