England are through to the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup, thanks to a brilliant century of 51 balls from Captain Harry Brook.
After Pakistan posted 164-9 on a tricky Pallekele pitch, this was a decent first innings score to post.
Sahibzada Farhan made good use of his blistering form, with 69 off 45 balls.
Babar Azam, Shadab Khan, and Fakhar Zaman also chipped in with useful contributions of 25, 25, and 23 runs, respectively.
Though England did well to restrict Pakistan in the end to 164-9, this was always going to be a slightly tricky score to chase down, even though Captain Salman Ali Agha felt his team’s score was ‘slightly short‘.
But credit to England’s Captain, whose century took them over the line, despite the collapses at the beginning, and towards the end of the chase. A move up the order turned out to be a bold but brilliant move.
“Just nice to get through to the semis. We have one more game against New Zealand and we’ll focus on that, but then. Baz came to me in the morning and said we may change it up and put you up at No. 3. We have spoken about being able to adapt and the bravery to do that was great. Nice to get out there and face as many balls as possible.
Brook: Cricinfo
If you are the Captain and the of the best batters in your team, you should look to bat in the top three/four.
This allows you the luxury of facing as many balls, so you can construct your innings, to the situation of the match.
Will he bat at Three in the Semis?
As for Pakistan, they must win their final game against Sri Lanka on 28th February and hope that New Zealand fail to beat Sri Lanka and New Zealand.
Back to England, sInce the 30-run defeat to West Indies on 11th February, their seams to be a lot more intent to the way they have played their cricket.
If they play with the same intent in the semi final, they will be a hard team to stop.
Can England go all the way in the T20 World Cup?
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