Manchester, Jul 21 (PTI) England batter Harry Brook believes that the on-field tensions with the Indian players in the ongoing Test series has helped his team more than the opposition.
The Indian players were all over England openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett towards close of play on day three at Lord’s. The bowler in operation at that time, Jasprit Bumrah sarcastically clapped at Crawley who employed the delaying tactic just before stumps.
Will there be more tension in the remaining two games? “I’ve had a lot of compliments. Everybody said it was awesome to watch and it looked like there was 11 versus two when we were fielding. It was good fun, I have to admit, it was tiring but it made fielding a lot more enjoyable,” said Brook on Monday ahead of the Manchester Test.
Brook, however, insisted that the lines won’t be crossed.
“Yeah, absolutely. We try to play in the spirit of the game as much as possible. Those lads went hard at Creeps and Ducky on that night when Bumrah bowled that single over. We watched that, we reassessed and we thought it was the right time to go back at them.” That specific needling by India in the third Test at Lord’s worked in England’s favour, said Brook.
“Yeah, I think it put them under a little bit more pressure. Chasing a low score but on a tough pitch, it might have given them a little bit of added pressure and thankfully they ended up crumbling and we won the game,” he said referring to the 22-run win at Lord’s as India failed to chase 193 on a tricky pitch.
Brook said he has been receiving messages on the highly competitive nature of the series which England lead 2-1 after three games which lasted five days.
“Every game we’ve played so far has gone into the last hour of the game, which you do not see very often. I’ve had a lot of people come up to me saying ‘it’s been an amazing series, thank you’.
“Everybody said that the Lord’s game was one of the best games that they’ve watched, so it’s been an amazing series and I’m looking forward to the rest of it. 11 v two on the pitch, that’s how you get brought up to try and play cricket is work as a team, try and figure out how we’re going to get them out.
“You don’t always have to be nice. As we saw last week, we tried to create a bit of niggle. Who knows, that might have played into our favour or we just bowled well,” said Brook.
The destructive batter said it has been satisfying to win matches in different circumstances.
“We saw them set a ridiculous total for us at Edgbaston. They obviously were a little bit scared of setting us a total that we could potentially get. That played into our favour and gave us a lot of confidence as well going into other games going forward,” he said.
“Chasing that total at Headingley was an unbelievable win as well. And then obviously the fight, the determination we showed to get that last wicket and the skills and patience that Stokesy showed as well throughout that period, where we couldn’t quite find the wicket, was awesome to watch. I’m sure it kept everybody on the edge of their seats,” Brook added. PTI BS PDS PDS
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