Mumbai, March 6 England captain Harry Brook described Jasprit Bumrah as the “best of all time at the minute” after India’s pace spearhead bowled a tight over with accurate yorkers towards the end of the T20 World Cup semifinal, which England won by seven runs.
Brook said it’s difficult to beat India because they also have some extremely good batters.
Defending champions India scored a record 253/7, thanks to Sanju Samson’s stunning 42-ball 89, before restricting England to 246 for 7 for a seven-run win in the T20 World Cup semifinal on Thursday night. Bumrah returned with figures of 1/33 from his four overs.
“Yes, it's tough. They just have batsmen coming out of everywhere. They've got some extremely good players and they’re clean ball-strikers. If you miss, you go for (a) six or (a) four,” Brook told the media after the match.
“Unfortunately, we didn't probably execute as well as we could have done and that's cost us slightly, alongside with some drop catches.”
Brook dropped Samson while on 15 in the third over of the Indian innings, and this missed opportunity had a big impact on the outcome of the game.
England, nevertheless, staged a spirited response in perfect batting conditions to remain in the game until the end. They needed 45 runs from 18 balls at one stage with centurion Jacob Bethell (105) going strong.
But Bumrah bowled a tight 18th over, allowing only six runs with pinpoint accuracy, which left England with the improbable task of 39 runs to score from the final two overs.
“He’s a very good bowler, arguably the best of all time at the minute,” Brook said of Bumrah.
“He’s been a very good bowler for a long time. The Indians (also) fielded extremely well, that catch (of Axar Patel to dismiss him) is arguably one of the best catches I've seen as well, so yeah, hats off to them.”
Brook said England can be proud of their “amazing campaign”.
“Disappointed, but extremely proud. Couldn't ask for much more as a captain to be honest. I think we've had an amazing campaign,” he said.
“As I said the other day, we're never out of games and that's proven again tonight (Thursday). We were in the game all the way until the last over. I'm just extremely proud of the boys and all the boys should be extremely proud of themselves as well.”
Brook lavished praise on the 22-year-old Bethell, whose century gave England a lot of hope for the future.
“He's a phenomenal player. As we've seen tonight in a high pressure situation against India on their home turf as well. The way that he played that innings there was just phenomenal," he said.
"He's going to have a hell of a career with England. I'm looking forward to hopefully spending a lot of time with him in the future,” Brook said.
With Varun Chakravarthy conceding 64 runs for one wicket in his four overs, England garnered a total of 99/2 in seven overs of spin from India.
Brook said while it was “funny” to be complimented about their achievement against spinners, it also was cricket “smarts”.
“It's funny because every time we get asked about spinners you are usually slagging us off, so it's nice to have a compliment about it for once,” he said.
“We identified that Chakravarthy’s is (bowling) probably short and Bethell put him away early on and as every bowler does, he tried to go a bit fuller and he hit him to (a) six back over his head.
“It's just the cricket smarts and just trying to figure out what their bowling attack is trying to do and the match-ups as well.”
Brook also stood firmly behind England head coach Brendon McCullum, who has been under fire since their poor show in the Ashes. Asked if he would back the former New Zealand captain to continue as England head coach, Brook replied "125 per cent".
"I've said plenty of times he's the best coach I've ever had (and the) best head coach I've ever had," Brook said.
"The way that he speaks to everybody -- he's got an aura in the dressing room -- everybody looks up to him and the things that he did in the game as a player was unbelievable and he just carried that into his coaching.
"The things that he's done over the four years that he's took over, has changed English cricket for hopefully the best," the England skipper added.
