Imagine yourself being one of the most promising players in world cricket, performing across all formats and then getting left out of the national team's squad for ICC Cricket World Cup, the biggest tournament in the sport, albeit a provisional one. So what do you do? Perform in every single opportunity you get till the World Cup and hope you somehow sneak into the squad.
That's what Harry Brook just did. And why does everyone rate him so highly? Because Brook smashed a 41-ball century, the fastest in the Hundred history when his team was reeling at 10/3 and the next best score is 15. Brook, who averages 62 in Test cricket at a strike rate of 91, played the best knock of the tournament with just some fearless batting and counter-attacked the Welsh Fire bowlers, who pegged the Northern Superchargers back with regular wickets.
Nine batters batted for the Superchargers and only two scored above 10, which shows how gutsy Brook's strokeplay was as the wickets at the other end didn't affect him even one bit. Brook raced off to a 24-ball half-century before taking just 17 more balls to reach the three-figure mark.
Brook's 41-ball century is the fastest in the Hundred history. He became the third male player to slam a ton in the Hundred after Will Jacks and Will Smeed and fourth overall after Welsh Fire captain Tammy Beaumont smashed the first-ever Women's Hundred century. Brook's 105* is the third highest in the Hundred history behind Beaumont (118) and Jacks (108*) and is the highest ever by a Northern Superchargers player (men or women) as he went past Jemimah Rodrigues' 92* in the first edition back in 2021.
Highest individual scores in the Hundred history (men/women)
118 off 61 - Tammy Beaumont (Welsh Fire) vs Trent Rockets, 2023
108* off 48 - Will Jacks (Oval Invincibles) vs Southern Brave, 2022
105* off 42 - Harry Brook (Northern Superchargers) vs Welsh Fire, 2023
101* off 50 - Will Smeed (Birmingham Phoenix) vs Southern Brave, 2022
97* off 55 - Beth Mooney (London Spirit) vs Southern Brave, 2022
However, Brook's lone effort wasn't enough for Superchargers to win their final league stage game as Welsh Fire riding on Stevie Eskinazi's quickfire half-century and knocks by Jonny Bairstow and Joe Clarke chased down 159 runs with 10 balls to spare. The Fire will now have to hope for a Southern Brave loss to Manchester Originals to advance to the eliminator.
On the other hand, Brook who was left out from England's World Cup squad owing to Ben Stokes' return has four T20Is against New Zealand next to push his case further for a late entry.
England's provisional World Cup 2023 squad: Jos Buttler (captain), Moeen Ali, Gus Atkinson, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley, David Willey, Mark Wood, Chris Woakes
