Brook century blasts England into semi-finals

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Salman Miyazak comes in around the wicket to Archer, moves across his stumps, pulls it out towards deep mid wicket. It's running away towards the boundary. It will get there. Joffre Archer has struck the boundary that has taken England into the semi finals of the Men's T20 World Cup. It has not been without some tension and some drama. England win the game by two wickets. I'm Daniel Norcross, I'm alongside World cup winner Alex Hartley as we look back on a quite extraordinary game of cricket at the Palakeli International Stadium in Kandy where England have won against Pakistan by two wickets with five balls to spare. And in so doing they have booked Their place in the semi finals of the Men's T20 World cup with a game to spare. This is an England team that have not been tipped heavily, have been, I would say criticized for the way they played throughout this tournament, that they've not shown, you know, consistency, that they've not had any standout players, that they've limped over the line against Nepal. Well, doesn't really matter what anybody says. They are in the semi finals and they've got there quicker than anybody else. And they got there in spectacular fashion today thanks to an innings, one of the all time great innings from their captain, Harry Brook. He said he wanted his team to be fearless and my goodness me, he was fearless all right. He hit around 100 in 51 balls. When he was out, the score was 155 for 6. He came in when the score was naught for 1 off 1 ball. And his innings has been without doubt the difference between England and Pakistan today. Alex, where do we begin A bit. This game has twisted and turned so many times today with Pakistan looking like they were going to set 180 at one point. At other points looking like they might only set 150, ending up setting 165. England being all over the place at the start, losing wickets early. They were 35 for 3, 58 for 4. Pakistan felt well on top and then they just ran into Harry Brook who was quite simply staggering.

Yeah, he really was. He was brilliant today. You know, he's a world class player. There's been a lot of talk and he's not done it when it matters. He's not done it on the world stage, he's not done it for his team. He's not ever had a player of the match performance for his team. He's asked a lot of his team, he said, I want them to be more aggressive when they're not playing great cricket. Let's be honest, it's been at times really tough to watch. And he's come out and said, hit the ball harder, hit the ball further, be braver, be better. And he's come out today, second ball of the innings and he's been that person. He has stepped up, he's gone. Actually, I'll go in at number three. England lose a wicket. First ball of the innings, I'll do it. I'll go three, puts his hand up and shown exactly why he should.

We're going to hear quite a lot from him, I imagine, because he's going to be the man of the match and he's Going to be the captain who's going to want a fair bit to say about, well, I be a very happy captain as well but fair bit to say about how England have made it through the semi finals so quickly. But let's go back to the beginning. Pakistan won the toss, they elected to bat. Would say it raised eyebrows. But chasing sides have prospered here at Palli and England have played a lot of T20 cricket here. I think it's five out of six, something like that, the last six. And it was just, I think that Pakistan wanted to do their batting bit first because the bowling bit is the bit that they're more comfortable with and they think at the pointy end of the game they can use their phalanx of spinners and that can put pressure on. But when they came out to bat they lost a couple of early wickets.

It was all no surprise to anybody

who watched that incredible match.

The player of the match is Harry Brooke, the English captain who receives his player of the match medal from the iconic World cup winning English captain Owen Morgan. What an innings it was by him today. And even hundred of just 51 balls, Harry. I mean most importantly a semifinal berth for sure. But hey, World cup hundred. How are you feeling?

Yeah, very happy with the way we played there and it's just nice to get through to the semis now and yeah, we got one more game against New Zealand and we focus on that. But then the bigger prize at the other side.

You're in a class of your own today. Batted absolutely beautifully. That promotion to number three though. Talk us through the mindset with that and the team.

That was Baz. It was all Baz. Yeah, he came to me this morning and just said look, well we might change you up and put you up at 3 today. And we've spoken about adapting and changing all sorts throughout this competition and just having the bravery to do that today was awesome.

Seeing to unlock a new level in your game personally as well. Is that something that you enjoy?

Well, getting better, number three. I haven't done it much but no, it's nice to get out there and face as many balls as possible.

They gave you a little bit of a scare towards the end as well. What did you make of the Pakistan outfit today?

Yeah, they're good, they're always good. They're some of the world class players in there. They have been for many years. And yeah, like I said, it's just nice to get over the line.

Such a wonderful all round performance for everyone. Some great batting with you and will Jax at the back end as well. Confidence seems to be building in the English side, as you said, getting better and better and a more cohesive unit every time. Do you feel like you're in the right place now heading into the semis?

Yeah. There's obviously areas that we still want to improve on and, yeah, you can never quite get perfection, but we're always striving for it. So, yeah, like I said, we'll look towards the New Zealand game now and our mind is completely on that.

A World cup hundred as well. What a special moment. Any. Any emotions going through your head? Are you just focused on getting the job done?

I was just happy that we got the job done, to be honest. Yeah, we were in a tricky situation at the start and then, yeah, a couple of partnerships. There was nice and. Yeah, like I said, just nice to get over the line.

Well, congratulations. A beautifully batted and a really great win.

Thank you.

That was a very delighted Harry Brook. I mean, there's a lot to take in there and we will be doing that over the next 15 to 20 minutes or so. But let's get back to the start of the game because England, they changed things up. There was no Wheel Jackson. The power play this time they assessed the conditions were a bit different. The pitch was a bit different. They opened with Archer. Yes. Who was bowling fire. I mean, touching 92, 93. At the other end, Jamie Overton was bowling 90 miles an hour as well. He opened the bowling and it was a sort of different look to the way England were going to play. They adapted to the conditions well, I thought. And 27 for two, they got themselves a good start and actually they. They kept a lid on stuff while Baba Azen was out there with Saban, who again, looks different class from everybody else with the B, the Pakistan team. I mean, Barber got 25 off 24 and when he was out 73 for 3 off the one ball shy of 11 overs, it just looked like they hadn't got going. You know, we were sort of talking 150.

Is that where the game's lost, though, I wonder, you know, I know that you look down the order and no one else has really got run. Shadab Khan got 23 off 11. But Baba Razam almost put a halt to the run scoring, didn't he? Yes, he's gone to run a ball. But there was no, like, let's push for twos. When you. When we saw Harry Brooke and Will Jacks not being able to score boundaries, they pushed so many twos. Barbara Zaman didn't really do that out in the middle. And look, if he could have got 35 off 24, it's a completely different game.

And indeed, you know, it felt like they were sort of lucky to get that because there were some streaky boundaries off the last balls of overs. Joffre Archer, his figures of 2 for 32 do not flatter him. He had some really streaky edges that were flying away from four. There were some dismal looking misfields, but that was happening throughout the game. I mean, that's been a feature of today's play, which could have something to do with the dew or the bouncing. I don't know if it's raining, I think it's just a great big mist has descended, but. Well, actually maybe it is rain. They've brought out covers, but I think it's just. I think it's a very heavy mist. And you know, that was sort of a feature of today, that fielders were sort of sliding around a bit and so, you know, what, what was 164, which is why I sort of confused about how we really assessed this was kind of error in half. It could easily have been 145, 150. I mean, Jacob Bethel was, was misfielding and you never see that.

No, he had a bit of a shocker in the field today. Pulled off some extraordinary stops as well. But know he like one through his legs. He hit one onto the boundary. Sponge. He then hit one into his own leg which went for four. So the is a bobbly outfield and there was something wrong today with, with the field in. England was sloppy in the field, allowing Pakistan to get up to that 164. But was it after 10, 12 overs that they're only two or three down and you think, oh, hang on a minute, they go get a monster here, they should get a monster. And I think when you look at the games that have been here at this ground, you think, oh, 164, 165 to win, probably about par. But it felt under par today for me anyway. It just felt like they were probably 10 shy.

Although as it turned out, if it hadn't been for Harry Brook, they're probably about 30 too many. Yeah, this is why it's been such a. An absorbing and extraordinary game. Who came back for England? Well, Joffre Archer we've mentioned, picked up again wickets in the power plays. A leading power play bowler in the competition. But today the, the lead spinner was Liam Dawson. It had been Will Jacks before. It has Been Adil Rashid on other occasions. Today Liam Dawson getting to play in his first world event at the age of 35. 324 in four over. He was on a hatrick at one point and it was part of a collapse from Pakistan when they lost Sahib Sadafaran who was, as we say, the standout batter in 63 off 45. The score was 122 for three just before he got out. And then somehow they managed to collapse 149 for 8 and it was there where that could have take propelled them to 175 and as things turned out that might have been enough for them to win the game. I think you got to credit England's bowlers again. They're sort of finding a way today it wasn't Will Jacks today, it was Dawson Adil Rashid. 4 overs, 1 for 3. 31 Again, I don't think those figures flattered him. There was a period when he had Gaza man in just all sorts of horrible strife. Wouldn't they pulled over at him and he was just all over the place.

Oh, I mean Joffre Archer's figures that, you know they, they should have take 10 runs to 15 runs off that easily. He bowled absolute heat today, absolute rockets. He had say going, hang on a minute, this seems a little bit quick. I don't really want to be facing this before. He had him hooking a ball that was clearly too quick for him. Caught a deep square. Yeah, he was fantastic today and you know, a couple of missed fields here and there and the ball went for for four. But he, he, he had that bit between his teeth today, Joffre, didn't he?

He really did. I mean it was consistent pace. He barely really tried much in the way of a change. I mean one back of the hand, slower ball that got walloped before. He mostly relied on his searing pace. So with that collapse, Pakistan Kaleidi must have won and 64, which as you say, Alex felt par, but it felt like a lot more than par early on in England's reply because for a start they lost a wicket off the very first ball. Shine Shah Afri brought back into the team after he wasn't selected for the washout the other day. He's had a pretty dismal tournament but at one stage he had three for 13. I mean, I know what a crazy game cricket can be.

I know it's. It was a, a weird and wonderful time for Shaheen really, wasn't it? Cuz actually at the start of the day you think does he deserve to play, but actually he's one of the world's best and on his day, he can win your games of cricket. And he bowled really nicely today. His last over was a little bit expensive. It went for 14 runs.

Well, it was Harry Brook that did it, wasn't it?

Exactly. And it was Harry Brooke with some extraordinary shots. So you almost think, oh, okay, you can kind of let him off. And yeah, he bowled nicely. And Pakistan were in the game all the way through. And even when Harry Brooke was going, you sort of felt if one of Harry Brook or Will Jacks gets out, then it's not easy out there. You know, there's one man on this surface that's made it look easy today and it's Harry Brooke who, You know, we saw it when Australia played with Mitch Marsh and Travis Head. Totally different surface to anyone else. They just couldn't break that partnership early enough.

The TMS podcast from BBC Radio 5 live.

There's been familiar failings for England. At the top of the order today. It was Phil Salt getting a first ball. I got six odd in the last. But Joss Butler, we need to talk about Joss Butler. It's another single figure score. Fourth running two off three balls. Jacob Bethel hasn't actually looked in the best of touch. Oh, here we go.

Has been waiting very Pakistan. Your reflections on the game overall?

Yeah, I think we started well when it's come to bat, but yeah, we couldn't finish the way we wanted to. But end of the day, I think sometimes you have to give the credit to the other batter. The way Harry batted, I think is batted outstand outstandingly well and it took the game away from us.

And you'll have a nervous wait now looking on other results in this group.

Yeah, we just have to wait now to like other other results and we'll still be hoping for the result to go our way. And then we have to win against Sri Lanka.

164 at the halfway mark. What did you think of that? On the surface that presented itself, I

think it was like a bit short, but the way we bowled, I think up front we bowled really well. And then the Harry came and he took the game away from us and he batted outstanding. Like we thrown everything on him, but he was too good for us today.

It's been the whole story for you really in this competition. For Haan going well, getting runs again, there hasn't been other batters really that have helped him out significantly enough. Why do you think that has been the case?

Yeah, I think he batted really well in every single game he played in this World cup and he's been doing well for us like last six, seven months. Yeah, we haven't, we haven't done well the other batters the way we wanted to but it can go like that in World cup games. But we are still hoping in the next game we can do well.

Big plus for you was the return to form of shine Shah Friedi with a new ball.

Yeah, he's, he's, he's bowled really well today and that's what we asked for him and that's what, that's, that, that's what he's famous for. Took wickets up front and that's what he did today.

You're going to be sick of the sight of Harry Brook by the end of his career. He has a habit of getting runs against players Pakistan.

Yeah, it's always him. When, whenever we play against England and we lose it's always him. But yeah, he b really well. You just have to, you just have to say hats off to him. He. The way he batted today and hopefully, hopefully like they can win against New Zealand for us now.

Is he a hard batter to captain against given the options he has as a, as a batter?

Yeah, it's very challenging when the way he bat when he's going the way he went today it's become very hard because he can play all 360 in the ground so it can get challenging.

And it meant that because you only scored 164 they didn't have to take too many risks against Tarik and that seemed to be a key element of the game there.

Yeah, I think they batted really well against him because they were not going hard against him. They were just taking one or two against him and I think, yeah, I think still Ousmane bowled really well. He took two wickets. Whenever we need a wicket he was always there. But yeah, they batted well against him as well.

Did you still have a bit of hope right at the end there? Just at the death. Did you think you might sneak home?

Yeah, the way Nas bow a second last over, I thought maybe. You never know. Cr is a funny game. He can can anything happen. But yeah, there was always hope. If there is a 1% chance we will, I will and my team will always hope.

Thanks for your time. Good luck in the last game.

Thank you very much.

Harry Brook for the second time tonight is is coming up. Congratulations. A semi final is confirmed for you.

Yeah, yeah, that's very nice. We've come here to do that job and thankfully, we've got over the line.

Let's talk about what clearly was the key decision to move yourself up to number three. First of all, when was that decision made and by whom?

This morning, by Baz. He was the mastermind behind it. And, yeah, look, it could have not come off, but thankfully tonight it has.

What was the reasons behind it? You must have changed, chatted with him and he must have explained why he wanted you to go up the order.

Yeah, we wanted to try and maximize the power play a little bit more. And everybody knows that I like to try and take the game on and I was going to do that from ball one. So, yeah, like I said, thankfully it came off and I managed to get a decent start.

You said it was Brendan's decision had he not made that decision. Was it in the back of your mind in any case, about moving up the order?

Yeah, I'd been thinking about it for a while and it's something I want to do in my career moving forward anyway, not just for England. And in franchise cricket, I want to get up there and try and face as many balls as possible.

And did it also play into the consideration that it was against Pakistan today? You've got an outstanding record, actually, across formats against this team.

Yeah, Bad said that this morning. He said, look, well, what do you think about going number three, Pakistan's your team. And I was just like, yeah, let's do it.

Halfway mark 164. It wasn't a pitch perfect fielding performance from. From you, was it?

No, he struggled in the field, unfortunately. Obviously the atmosphere wasn't as good as what we'd played against Sri Lanka. And that was the main chat before we went out there. Beth went to the group, he said, look, lads, the atmosphere is no good tonight. Let's try and keep the intensity up and make sure our fielding's on point. And unfortunately, he misfeeded a couple. But, no, that was something we really tried to do and it was a bubbly outfield and we just missed a few.

You unfortunately, wickets again in the power play. How important has that been for you? I think Joffre's taken eight wickets now in the power play in all the matches.

Yeah, it's very important in any game of T20 cricket to get you off to a start like that. Joffre has been awesome for many years doing that and it just puts them on the back foot early.

Hundreds across formats for you. I know the win is more important than the three figures, but nice to join Joss and David Milan, who've done that.

Yeah, it's. Yeah, it's always nice to just win games of cricket. And it was like you said to Salmon then it was a little bit nervy at the end.

I was going to ask that when you got up. I mean, didn't want memories of the oval against India flooding back after you'd got out.

I was about to say to Baz, now, hopefully this isn't another oval, but. No, yeah, thankfully we got over the line and we're through to the semis. But the main focus the now is on New Zealand and hopefully we can go out there and play with a lot of confidence.

And how will you approach that? Will you jig things around, give match time to others or. I mean, there's obviously areas that you still need to work on, particularly that top order to fire.

That's something for me and Baz to have a chat about and the selectors and, yeah, we'll see what happens there. And I don't think much will change, but you never know.

Many congratulations. Well done.

Thank you.

That was Mike Atherton with Harry Brook. Let's start with that, though, because as we were saying just before the captains came along, that hundred has papered over something of a crack for England, which continues to be a problem. Harry Brook going up to number three. You don't want to mess with somebody like Josh. No, he's one of the greatest white ball players.

Who's writing Josh Butler off. If you are like, get a grip. Like, seriously, he's the best white ball cricketer England have ever, ever produced. And he can't have this purple patch and he can't be in a brilliant run of form forever. And he's one of those players where it takes one shot of him to crunch one through the covers for him to slug sweep one for six. And he'll be back. He will absolutely be back. And look, it's not a worry because England are winning games. It. It would be a worry if they're losing games and they're not playing good cricket. And look, they've played, they've played bitty cricket, but somebody's always stuck, stepped up at a certain time. I have absolutely no doubt that when push comes to the shove, Joss Butler will step up and he'll be okay. He's just. The more we all talk about it, he. The less confidence he's going to have, the more he's going to see. He's obviously got his own podcast now. He's got to talk about it on there. Harry Brook said after the the game against Sri Lanka, he's just a bloke that's running low on confidence. And you can sort of see that, you know, when he got out today, he's just like, oh, another one, here we go. But he's been through this before. He'll probably get 80 off 30 balls in the next game. Everyone goes, what a strange old tournament.

The next game is a kind of a free hit against New Zealand. And that sometimes can liberate players, can't it? And do you see England just sticking with the formula because you know, they get time off between these games. You want to get into a groove, you want to get into a kind of rhythm. It's three days before they play again.

Yeah. So they'll travel tomorrow to Colombo. So it's basically travel day is not really a day off for a player, you know, it's not a day off for a commentator. It's not a day off for a player because you're still in the bus. You've got to go to the gym, do all your ice baths and things like that. And then they'll have optional training on Thursday before the game Friday. I personally wouldn't change a thing for England I think because they haven't had that complete performance. Everybody will want to get out there and everybody will want to find that rhythm.

It's been again Will Jax who has done something unspectacular but utterly important for England. Down at number seven, he's fast becoming England's player of the tournament. 28 of 23 today doesn't sound magnificent. And he had some sticky patches, a couple of overs where he just kept on dotting up. But he found a boundary here. He found a six there. He gave the support to Harry Brook that he needed so badly in a 52 run 6 wicket partnership. Had he gone, we saw what happened after he was out. It could have been worse than it was that it suddenly became very nervy towards the very back end. England sort of limping over the line with five balls to spare. But did you have it on your bingo card? I mean when you're sort of like sixth bowler and batting at number seven to end up being probably the most concern. Consistent form for England throughout.

Look, I didn't have Will Jacks down as being the player of the tournament, but he's one of those players that you know, can step up when needed. He's got, he's got the highest, second highest strike rate of the the competition for somebody scored over 100 runs. He's been brilliant with Bat and with ball. It's with the ball that surprised me. You know, we've all seen him bowl over the last year or so, but he's. I guess he's adapted really well, which has been impressive.

Although today England's bowler of the day was the 35 year old Liam Dawson. And Artif Noirs got the opportunity to have a chat with him at the close of play.

Liam, well done on getting over the line. It seemed like it was a little bit nervy towards the end.

Yeah, for sure. Obviously going into that last couple of overs thinking we'll win it pretty easily. But yeah, we got over the line again. But what a knock from Harry Brook. Absolutely phenomenal that you must be pleased

with your own efforts as well with the ball. It seemed to grip nicely, turn nicely for you.

Yeah, it was nice. Footballed nicely. I think the pitch sort of dictate what you had to do a little bit. It's probably a better wicket than what we've had previously here, but yeah, to chase that score in a big game for us was brilliant.

164 is what was put on the board. How did you feel about that in the dressing room? Did you guys feel like you had them where you wanted them? That was chasable, let them get a few too many? What was the thought in the dressing room?

Probably maybe a little bit too many. Maybe 10 or 15 too many. I think for honest, we probably didn't field as well as we should have done out there. Probably gave him probably 10 runs in the field. So, yeah, we knew that it was going to be a tough chase. I think all the games here have been sort of tricky to bat on, but to chase that and the way Brookie played was phenomenal.

Yeah. Let's talk about the Harry Brook innings. That felt like a really sensational once in a lifetime type innings. I'd say once in a lifetime, but I don't doubt he'll do it again. What was it like to just watch that from the dugout?

Well, I think every time he's there, obviously the dress room's calm. He's. He's a freak of a player. He's one of the world's best. I think when he plays like that, then fair play to him. It's amazing to watch.

You're through to the semi finals now. You're going to be in India. Somewhere in India. We don't know where yet exactly. But it must feel really good to know that the semi final berth is secured.

Yeah, without doubt. Obviously, first and foremost was to qualify for the Super 8s and the next goal was to get to the semi final. So we've managed to do that and yeah, obviously wait and see who we play.

Anybody you'd like to play.

I think you've got to beat everyone to try and win it, but, yeah, just happy to get there and yeah,

it's a good feeling.

Well, very well played today, Liam. It was fantastic to watch and best of luck in the semis.

Thank you. Cheers.

Cheers, Artif. They're talking to Liam Dawson, but it's time for us to pivot to Pakistan because their campaign now hangs by a thread. Let's put it quite simply, if Sri Lanka can beat New Zealand, life becomes much, much easier for them. Then they know that if they can beat Sri Lanka, then they've got a good chance of getting through. But it will depend on net run rate. If New Zealand were to beat England, that's. I know, it sounds like a bit of a mouthful, doesn't it? However, if England beat New Zealand anyway, they're in with a chance, so they're relying on other people. But Atif, what was your assessment generally of Pakistan today? They came so close, but they were defeated by, well, one man in that second innings.

Yes, I think in a weird way, I think they'll take, you know, a lot of heart from that, that they came very close to beating an England side that's had the wool over them in T20 cricket for a long time, especially in T20 World Cups, but they came very close and. But for an incredible, almost unprecedented innings, really from Harry Brook, who picked this moment to put forth as his most self assured and most calm and most intelligent innings really in this World cup. The way he sort of picked his gaps, picked his moments and executed his big shots at just the right time to take it off. You know, he managed to hit a couple of bowlers out of the attack, including Sim aub, you know, who's now one of Pakistan's frontline bowlers. I also thought he played Usman Dic very sensibly. Pakistan have, as we say, a multifaceted bowling attack. Loads of different options to turn to with the spin and he was just so clever about the way he targeted, you know, bowlers at the right time. He decided to sort of decelerate almost at times as well. He was happy to pick up twos. I thought, England's running between the wicket. I mean, I don't know what he's clocking in on those the BLEEP Test or the new version of the Bleep Test, whatever it is the players do now. I mean, he's in unbelievable shape. To be able to run all those twos without having to stop to catch his breath or be down on his haunches even once, that was really impressive to watch. Like a lot of people, I found it very striking that that's his first T20 international 100, but it is and I feel like it won't be the last. I think Pakistan will look at this match and think we did a lot of things right in this game. Yeah. Not ideal to lose those, those early wickets, but they managed to steady the ship. They actually managed to accelerate reasonably well. Couple of players got out trying to go big towards the end, but that's gonna happen because you're trying to play, you know, high risk cricket to try and get yourself a few extra runs. I think 164 wasn't a bad score on this pitch, even sort of. Liam Dawson alluded to that in his interviewer.

He said at the halfway mark, you said 55, 55, 45 in Pakistan's predictor

was in Pakistan's favor. 57%. In fact, 23. So it, you know, it was a good total on this pitch. I think there were moments where, you know, maybe they took their foot off the, off the throttle a little bit. They started so well in that power play. Shaheen afi, looking like himself again, at least briefly, picked up four wickets today. That's a huge plus for Pakistan to have their strike seamer back in form. As you say, their, their fate does now lie in other hands, but it's loads of hands. It's not just one sequence. There's a few different scenarios which could see Pakistan go through, all of which are somewhat feasible. But what they do need to do is make sure they execute as close to this level, ideally about 10% better, and they'd be comfortable, they'd be confident about getting over the line against Sri Lanka. But I don't think it'll be massively doom and gloom. It will sort of the general sense of doom and gloom is going to be there because you've lost a game and you've lost a close game and you've lost to England and you're like now on the brink of elimination from the tournament. So, you know, there's a sense of doom and gloom. But it wasn't an awful performance from Pakistan from start to finish. There were loads of positive points. Ultimately, as you say, it came down to a player playing just a spectacular innings. That was the difference between the two sides. He Alone was playing in a completely different environment, different conditions, different headspace to everybody else that. That took to that field today. So I don't think they'll take it too hard. There will be disappointment, but equally they'll know that they were, you know, they were beaten by a special knock. I think it was sort of all summed up quite nicely by the way Shaheen Afree shook hands with Harry Brook after he. He got him out with a, you know, lovely Yorker. He didn't celebrate, just walked over, shook his hand, patted them on the back and said, well, batted.

It's a touch of class that actually

it's a touch of class and it's just an acknowledgment really that it's you. You've beaten us, I think the other 10, we had him covered, but you beat us and respect you for doing it.

I've got to mention the name. I'm sorry I'm turning you into Salmon Aliago here who doesn't want to hear this name at any other press conference if you can possibly avoid it. But Baba Azam, ah, 25 off, 24. Was he rebuilding or was he responsible for like reducing the ceiling of Pakistan's innings today?

I think it's harsh to say he was reducing the ceiling just because he was there with Sahib's either Farhan. They were batting about as quick as each other at the time. Right. The message came at the drinks break for him to imagine from Mike Essence to say, right, now's the time to push on or make way for the, for the big hitters, which he sort of did. He stabilized that little phase of Pakistan, lost the early wickets. He was there in the power play, you know, going almost at a runnable in the 20s. It's not ideal, but it was sort of fine for Pakistan. Did he put pressure on the lower order? I don't know. I mean, you could argue it either way, but I'll argue there's. There's a value to what. What Barber did today that goes beyond sort of the numbers as well. There's like a calming presence. There's the idea of like bringing a little bit of stability to what can be a haphazard phase. We saw in the England innings as well, wickets fell in clumps and, you know, there's always a danger of things just sort of falling apart. We saw that with Sri Lanka, we've seen it with several teams, but just he is one of those players that gives you a sense of security, a sense of assurance and there is value for that. And Again, I think the way Mike Hessen uses him, you know, even though I'm not a huge fan of the comments that he made about him in the press conference, I. I think the way he uses them is appropriate. Like, if he needs to just sort of forego Barber in the batting order and think, right, we've got the kind of platform where we want our big hitters to come in and play shots, then he can do that. He can send them in, keep that flexible batting order, you know. Fakhr Zaman came and played a nice little cameo as well for Pakistan. There were a few batters chipping in towards the end. You know, it looked like they could get 180 at one point, but it equally looked like they could be dismissed for 140. So 164 was sort of halfway between that and I don't think it was a bad total, really. It's really just, you know, they'll look at Harry Brooks innings and they'll think, okay, you know, in an ideal world, one of us would have done that. And, you know, Sahib Zada Farhan came the closest. But even he frankly wasn't anywhere near what Brook did. And he didn't have that kind of support that Brook got from Jackson Curran as well towards the end. So there'll be things that Pakistan will reflect on, but I don't think it'll be doom and gloom. I don't think it'll be catastrophic. Even when it comes to Barbar Azam, I think the plan that they're going into these games with, they'll probably persevere with that, at least for the Sri Lanka game.

That's it for the TMS podcast. From here in Kandy, England have got over the line and have qualified for the semi finals of the World Cup. On Wednesday, New Zealand take on co host Sri Lanka at the R Premedasa Stadium in colombo. That's at 7pm our time, 1:30 GMT. Make sure you're subscribed to TMS podcast on BBC sound so you never miss an episode. Thanks for listening. We'll speak to you next time.

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