At the oval 20 years ago, England led 2-1 at the end of a series of five oscillating games. In their second round, n ° 5 of the host arrived at a difficult time, then summoned a sleeve of boastful and dazzling.
The 158 of Kevin Pietersen against Australia will forever remain one of the most expensive test sleeves of the English cricket: a clean Chutzpah monument which found the ashes. At the same point of view, Harry Brook produced a good reminder.
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In the fourth round, rather than the third like Pietersen, Brook knew that the equation was simple. He arrived at 106-3; England would mark 268 other points or would be defeated.
In 2005, Pietersen arrived with 16.1 overshitters to lunch; The arrival of Brook came with only 10.3 letters to the same interval. However, while Pietersen waited for the second session to deploy his full assault, Brook did not see the need to delay his attack.
Akash’s initial Brook treatment has deeply prefiguring the violence to come. Since his 19th ball, Brook has deeply removed the front foot through Midwicket. Now Brook has doubled – loading the counter and deeply forging the cover for six. Insolement, it was an astonishing blow; The impact was amplified by reality that England still needed 244 other points to win.
Twenty years ago, Pietersen was abandoned to Slip by Shane Warne, 15 in her Epic 15. Brook, too, was encouraged by early fortune. On the 19th, he pulled Prasidh Krishna in the hands of Mohammed Siraj with a fine leg. But while Siraj prompted the ball, its right leg cut the boundary rope, winning Brook six runs.
However, if the underlying approaches and a baking of healthy luck were common threads in these two classic oval, there was a crucial difference. That day against Australia, Pietersen needed a speech on PEP at lunch, Captain Michael Vaughan. To remind him of how to play. “I said to myself:” Oh my God, what will I do here? “” Said Pietersen later. Vaughan told him to “continue to swing”.
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This time, Brook did not have such uncertainty. All his test career is noted from the Brendon McCullum-Ben Stokes regime. During all this time, he was released to explore the whole range of his talents.
Pietersen has not always had such clarity. After Duncan Fletcher left as a chief coach, in 2007, Pietersen was often uncertain about the risk that England would tolerate in his test striker. Notoriously, he was criticized loudly in the locker room by hitting the coach Graham Gooch after being taken for a long time in Perth in 2013.
“I was mistreated by coaches staff for taking the border,” said Pietersen recently. “He was playing almost with a hand tied behind your back. Many people say: “You would have loved playing under Brendon”. “
Kevin Pietersen says it was like playing with a hand attached behind your back ” during his time as a drummer from England – Getty Images / Richard Sellers
Insolement, Brook’s dismissal in the oval seemed as blatant as in Pietersen’s career. Tilled, Brook fell back on the side of the legs and loaded the counter deeply. While he shaped to slide deeply on the line, Brook lost control of his bat. The ball completed to Siraj with additional blanket, the battle leg battle: a scene of incompetence without part for one of the best drummers in the world.
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This could still be considered the moment when England has wasted control of the test match. But England will not focus on the end of Brook’s sleeves. Instead, they will focus on the brutal shine that preceded. Brook is an exciting combination of premeditated and instinctive. Such a range allowed him in turn to use his feet to back down and sculpt Krishna on the point, then to keep a complete balance while he was beating leave through the blankets and looted short balls of the front and rear foot.
The 10th test of Brook Hundred, redirect the game in 91 balls, could have been to date. His unusually emotional celebration, jumping from joy, seemed to recognize so much.
This 111 assured Brook entry into an elite club, which even escaped Steve Smith: test players who have made superb centuries of fourth rounds. Until the oval, Brook had waded into fourth round, with an average of 18.9.
Brook’s counterattack illustrated how the No. 5 has become the first place for the most destructive drummer of a team. At a time when the new ball often offers an appreciable movement, but softens quickly and becomes much more conducive to the striker, Travis Head and Rishabh both charted the five -way for five.
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However, even this pair has not equaled Brook so far in his test career. Brook is now on average 57.5 in 30 tests. Only six men – Don Bradman, Herbert Sutcliffe, Ken Barrington, Everton Weekes, Wally Hammond and Garry Sobers – have played as many tests and on average more. And Brook looted races with such regularity while marking at a typing rate of 87, the fastest of anyone with 500 trials.
Whatever the last day, the oval, Brook’s penchant for exasperation should not obscure how extraordinary it is.
