Brook’s first T20 century puts England in World Cup semis

PALLEKELE, Sri Lanka (AP):

Harry Brook hadn't exactly been firing at the Twenty20 World Cup. England scraped into the Super Eights and the captain's contribution before yesterday was 102 runs in five games with one half-century.

Coach Brendon McCullum stopped Brook in the morning and suggested he move up the batting order from No. 5 to No. 3. "Pakistan are your team," McCullum posed as a carrot.

Brook took the bait and validated the move with his maiden T20 century as England beat Pakistan by two wickets and reached an unprecedented fifth consecutive World Cup semi-finals.

Brook's even 100 propelled England to 166-8, overhauling Pakistan's 164-9 with five balls to spare.

"We've come here to do that job (reach the semi-finals) and we got it done," he said.

They did it with a game to spare in the Super Eights.

England's chase started shakily. Shaheen Shah Afridi dismissed Phil Salt, Jos Buttler and Jacob Bethell in the powerplay and eclipsed Haris Rauf as the team's highest-ever T20 wicket-taker. Then when Tom Banton was caught behind off spinner Usman Tariq, England were 58-4.

Brook took on Pakistan, aggressive from the start. With support from Sam Curran and Will Jacks he reached 50 runs off 28 balls, charged past his previous T20 high of 81 against Pakistan in 2022, and reached the milestone 100 off 50 balls.

England's XI were unchanged for the fifth straight match, but McCullum wanted to shake up the order and Brook by playing his captain at first drop.

"We wanted to try and maximise the powerplay a little more," Brook said. "They know I like to take the game on. Thankfully, it came off."

After notching a century in all three formats, Brook was out the next ball, bowled when he missed a yorker in Afridi's return spell.

Afridi, who took 4-30 and has 135 T20 wickets (two more than Rauf), shook Brook's hand and the captain walked off to an ovation.

Brook smacked 10 boundaries and four sixes to leave England 10 runs from victory.

England lost two more wickets to left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz before Archer sealed the game by pulling left-arm fast-bowler Salman Mirza for four off the first ball of the final over.

Pakistan chose to bat first on a fresh pitch, but opener Sahibzada Farhan's 63 off 45 balls was the only score more than 25. Pakistan were restricted to a sub-par total.

England express pacer Jofra Archer grabbed 2-32 and spinners Liam Dawson and Adil Rashid slowed the run rate through the middle overs. Dawson picked 3-24.

"Our score was a bit short," Pakistan captain Salman Agha said. "And then Brook took the game away from us. We threw everything at him. Whenever we play against England and lose, it's always him."

Pakistan have had a washout and a loss and still have to play Sri Lanka in Group 2. Their chances of advancing will also depend on others.