England captain Harry Brook admitted he committed a huge mistake by dropping the catch of India batter Sanju Samson during their recent T20 World Cup 2026 semi-final in Mumbai on March 5, 2026. England lost a close encounter to India by 7 runs in a high-scoring encounter.
Asked to bat first, thanks to Sanju Samson’s 89, Shivam Dube’s 43, Ishan Kishan’s 39, and cameos by Tilak Varma and Hardik Pandya, India posted 253/7 in 20 overs.
On a belter of a pitch, Jacob Bethell led the England charge with a terrific 105 in 48 balls, aided by Will Jacks (35), Jos Buttler (25), and Sam Curran (18). England could only manage 246/7 and lost the semi-final by 7 runs.
India's score would have been way lower had Brook held onto the catch of Samson in the third over when the right-hander was batting on just 15. Archer induced a false shot by Samson, who played an uppish shot towards Brook at mid-on.
Ohhhhh, Harry Brook! ????
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) March 5, 2026
Sanju Samson makes the most of the lifeline and sends it into the stands! ????
ICC Men’s #T20WorldCup | Semi-final 2 | #INDvENG | LIVE NOW ???? https://t.co/L2OuYBUDbL pic.twitter.com/zOWfIEAdUv
However, Brook dropped a sitter of a catch, and Samson went on to make 89 runs, putting India on course for a huge total.
"Absolutely, and I'll hold my hands up and say that I made a big mistake there dropping Samson, and yeah, catches win matches, that old famous phrase, and unfortunately, we just didn't go our way in the field tonight. Another day, it comes off,” Brook said about his fielding error in the post-match presentation.
Brook also stated that he decided to bowl first because he expected dew to play a factor. He also noted that he expected the pitch to help the pacers early on; thus, he elected to bowl first.
“We just thought that there might have been a little bit of hold early on with the pitch being fresh, and we were expecting probably a little bit more spin in the first innings, but it slid onto the bat nicely. They played extremely well, and all of our lads should be so proud of the way that we played tonight and throughout this competition,” said Brook.
“Just misexecution here and there. We probably didn't execute as well as we could have. The Indian batters are some of the best batters in the world, and if you mis-execute to some of them, it goes out the park. So, we probably didn't execute as well as we could have done, but like I say, we gave it a red hot crack, and unfortunately, we were on the wrong side,” he added.
Brook didn’t shy from praising young Jacob Bethell for his breathtaking knock. Bethell hammered 8 fours and 7 sixes in his 48-ball, 105-run knock. He kept hitting fours and sixes at one end when the asking rate was 13-14 per over.
“He was absolutely unbelievable. I think he's going to earn some serious money in his career, and he's going to have a hell of a career with England, and yeah, he showed the world how good he is tonight. Unfortunately, we were on the wrong side, but that inning is an extremely big positive to take away from this competition and to see him go out there in the manner that he did, taking it to them from ball one and, like I said, showing the world what he can do,” said Brook.
Not many teams would have had a chance to reach the aim of 250, but his squad put up a strong fight in the middle, according to Brook, who added the entire England team should be pleased with their performance.
“We had a good tournament, to be honest. As I said a second ago, we should be extremely proud of how we played. I said the other day, we're never out of games, and that proved true again tonight, chasing 250. Other teams could have just folded and crumbled away, but we stuck to it the whole game, and we gave it a red-hot crack as I said, and unfortunately, we were on the wrong side of it tonight,” he added.
India will take on New Zealand in the summit clash on Sunday, March 8, at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
(ANI inputs)
