EDGBASTON TEST
The pair put on a sensational 303-run stand, helping England recover from 84/5 at Edgbaston © Getty
Harry Brook praised fellow centurion Jamie Smith for a “phenomenal innings” at Edgbaston, where England’s keeper-bat carved out 184, a towering mark that eclipsed Alec Stewart’s 173, setting a new record for an England keeper in Test cricket. When England lurched at 84 for 5, Brook and Smith steadied the ship, stitching a dazzling 303-run partnership for the sixth wicket in just two sessions. Brook himself contributed a classy 158.
Smith was the pulse of the revival, unleashing a flurry of boundaries – he hit 21 fours and 4 sixes in all – in the opening session of Day 3, defying Prasidh Krishna’s short-ball trap with as many as six legside fielders poised. His century arrived off a blistering 80 balls, tied for the third fastest by an Englishman in Tests. “He tried to change the momentum back in our favour and it worked for a long period of time,” Brook said. “It was awesome. It was so good to watch from the other end. I felt like he could hit four or six every ball. I was just trying to get him on strike.”
The partnership finally broke just after India took the second new ball. The impressive Akash Deep struck with a sharp nip-backer that slipped past a weary Brook’s defenses. Before his dismissal, the 26-year-old had battled cramps in his right arm, needing physio treatment mid-innings. His exit opened the floodgates; India claimed the last five wickets for just 20 runs, carving out a commanding 180-run lead.
“I was knackered,” Brook admitted. “It was [cramps in] my whole right side. I’d never had it before. It was probably the death of me at the end, but yeah, I was knackered. It probably didn’t help that we fielded for two days and then batted for nearly a full day… It wasn’t ideal.”
Brook revealed his hunger for a century this week, fueled by narrowly missing one at his home ground in Leeds, falling short by a single run when he top-edged a pull off Prasidh Krishna in the first innings. That innings, he should have been out for a duck, but Jasprit Bumrah’s overstep gave him a reprieve. Ironically, a golden duck did come in the second innings, courtesy of Shardul Thakur.
“I was definitely hungry to get a hundred today. I’d never been out in the 90s before, not even through school cricket,” Brook reflected. “It was disappointing, but I should have got a pair last week, so I can’t complain too much.”
Meanwhile, looking ahead to Day 4, Brook embraced the Bazball spirit, despite India’s commanding 244-run lead after three days. “I think everybody in the world knows that we’re going to try and chase whatever they set us,” he said. “We’ve obviously got a big task at hand tomorrow morning and we’ll try and get a couple of wickets early on and try and put them under pressure.”
“Obviously, they are in front at the minute, but if we get a couple of early wickets in the morning, you never know how this game can go. As we’ve seen last week, we got 7 for 30 runs [7 for 41] and then 6 for 40 runs [6 for 31] at Headingley and then they’ve done the same to us today. Everything happened so quickly and you never know how the game can go.”
© Cricbuzz
