Harry Brook expressed his relief after scoring his first one-day international century, which helped secure his first victory as England’s captain. After suffering significant losses against the world champion Australia at Trent Bridge and Headingley, England needed a win at Chester-le-Street on Tuesday to stay competitive in the five-match series.
Brook joined the batting lineup when England was in a difficult position at 11/2, with both openers dismissed by Australian fast bowler Mitchell Starc. However, the 25-year-old Yorkshire player responded with an outstanding unbeaten 110. He received strong support from Will Jacks (84) during a crucial partnership of 156 runs.
By the time rain interrupted England’s chase of a target of 305, they had already secured a 46-run victory according to the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method. This further demonstrated Brook’s talent and composure, especially considering he is a relatively new captain, leading England in this series in place of the injured Jos Buttler, and this was only his 18th ODI appearance.
Brook was just happy to be scoring runs again.
“I’m really relieved,” he said to the reporters. “It feels good to finally get my first hundred and hopefully there will be many more. This summer, I’ve had a lot of starts — getting to 30s and 40s — but then I couldn’t turn those into bigger scores, which was frustrating.
“Today, I feel like I’m in a better place. It’s great to score runs against Australia, but scoring runs is always amazing, no matter who the opponent is.”
Brook faced criticism for his comments after England’s loss in the first match in Nottingham. He tried to explain some mistakes by saying: “If you get caught near the boundary or in the field, does it really matter?”
But Brook insisted that he had been misinterpreted.
“I think people misunderstood what I meant,” he explained. “You need to play without fear and almost have a ‘who cares?’ mindset, but that doesn’t mean ‘who cares if we lose?’ We all want to win, but you shouldn’t be afraid of getting out.
“You’ve seen it many times in Test matches—at the beginning, Stokesy (England’s Test captain Ben Stokes) was getting caught at mid-on, which was unusual. So you have to play fearlessly and try to challenge the bowlers.”
Australia’s coach, Andrew McDonald, regretted the absence of key spinner Adam Zampa, who had to withdraw due to illness. This absence played a role as England ended Australia’s 14-game winning streak in One Day Internationals (ODIs).
McDonald praised Harry Brook’s performance, saying: “Harry deserves a lot of credit. He’s a very talented player and will have a long career with England.
“He’s going to be a tough opponent for us. The way he played and led the team today…sometimes you just have to acknowledge the opposition’s skill. This is one of those times.”
