England captain Harry Brook became the first batter from his country to slam a double hundred in ODIs and created a world record by breaking Shubman Gill’s 117-ball double ton recently. Brook reached his double ton in just 114 balls, as England posted 429/4 in 50 overs against Sri Lanka in the ongoing ODI tri-series in Pakistan, also involving the hosts.
This game was played on October 22 in Rawalpindi and saw England batting first after losing the toss. Tom Banton made 50, while Joe Root made 69 runs, but it was Harry Brook who slammed 202 in 116 balls with 21 fours and 10 sixes. His knock was a brilliant one to take England to a very good score. Will Jacks also scored 66* off 30 balls.
However, Pavan Rathanayake’s 130.97, each by Avishka Fernando and Dasun Shanaka, and brilliant finishing by Janith Liyanage (61* off 27 balls) shocked the England team as Sri Lanka chased down 429 runs and won the game by 2 wickets.
This chase by Sri Lanka made them the only third team after South Africa and India to chase down 400-plus runs in ODIs and the second-highest chase ever.
Harry Brook, however, stated that his achievement meant nothing and held no value after England ended up losing the contest.
“Yeah, it's nice. But unfortunately, it doesn't mean anything now, being on the losing side. It has no value whatsoever in my eyes,” Brook said at the post-match presentation.
Brook’s 202 became England’s highest individual ODI score, going past Ben Stokes' previous best of 182 against New Zealand in 2023.
Brook praised Sri Lanka while acknowledging that a unique effort outperformed England. After losing their first two tri-series games, he said the team needed to return to the fundamentals.
“Incredible game of cricket. I thought both teams were exceptional. Sri Lanka just outplayed us, unfortunately. We couldn't quite hit our straps with the ball and played into their strengths a little bit. And again, they played exceptional cricket to knock off 400. I think you said the first time in 20 years is an incredible achievement, so fair play to them.
We need to reassess our approach. No, we know where we've gone wrong. Unfortunately, we didn't execute well enough with the ball," he added.
England will now face Pakistan in Lahore on October 25.
(ANI inputs)
