by Scientists say that the typical person can recognize 21 different facial expressions. After seven years of test cricket, Jasprit Bumrah got to know a good handful of them, almost every man, from awe, through disgust, fear, sadness, surprise and all their many combinations. They would suspect that it was a while since he saw a happy striker who looks back from 22 meters, but when they were the first to be the binoculars on Harry Brook on Sunday morning, they could see that he was wearing such a big, stupid grin that his teeth looked through Goaming.
You don’t want him to go, but you would think that there must be easier ways to get your kicks than run on the field to meet a man with 90 km / h door. But Brook’s brain seems to be a little different. At the third ball Bumrah, who Bowgel him on Sunday, he decided to take two quick steps forward and roll it through the ceiling for four blankets.
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It was an extraordinary shot in an innings that are occupied with them. Brook took off one of the short balls from Prasidh Krishna from the outside and raised him to the stand over the middle of the wind. He went down the field to start Mohammad Siraj over the silly center, which he is trying to hold out exactly this shot, and even played Rishabh Pants Roly-Poly shovel over the Wicketkeeper to achieve a four in front of Ravindra Jadeja. It was like seeing a child who copied the trick he had just seen on TV, except that it got through it.
These are not lines that a typical batsman can imagine, let alone executing. But then Brook is the most rich shot that England has been in the team since Kevin Pietersen. The time was and not too long ago when they had been told that they had tried them. But Brendon McCullum is the only English trainer Brook who has ever known – he is encouraged to play in this way.
When the second new ball came over, India’s bowl had just enough of it. They already thought they had come out of Brook when he couldn’t help himself but try to hang one of Bumrah’s bouncers and was caught in Midwicket, which turned out to be no-ball, and then they thought they had got him a second time when he penetrated Jadeja to Pant who could stick to the catch. They had spent persuading and failing the referees all the morning to change the soft ball with which they had worked, and now they finally had a shiny new one.
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They gave it siraj. He is one of these bowlers who likes to choose a fight and always seems angry with his lot. The Telangana police recently sworn him as an honorary wife junction, and he has the air of a man you don’t want to ask twice to see your license.
Siraj hit Brook out once when Brook swung on a cut so hard that he threw himself off his feet, then he hit him again when he hit his inner edge and crashed into the ball from his thigh. He started to warm up, then Brook went and hit his next two deliveries for four, and he reached a cook. Siraj briefly hit the next ball in the next rib and hit him on the elbow. He followed the delivery and while Brook twitched, Siraj stood in the middle of the field and stared at him. He shot a few friendly words – exactly what is between the two – and then a length that Brook held back over his head for six.
He could have cut him just as well on his forehead. Siraj fired the next in so quickly that Brook, although Brook missed it, shot down his pads for four legies. When Siraj over -corrected and the next one on the side, Brook hammered him through Point for four more. That did 18 of the over. And at that point Pant decided that everyone needed a break and called a trainer to strap his ankle. His teammates gathered in a Huddle. Apart from Siraj, the stand, hands on the hips and stared into the distance. He looked like he was chasing the air when someone came from him within three feet.
At some point in all of this, Brook was dropped again when he cut one of Bumrah’s away swinging to Gully. He was finally caught at 99, in depth. Sometimes you wonder if there is a thought in his head, except to found the ball. At least in this context, he is part of a long Yorkshire tradition – Geoff Boykott, Herbert Sutcliffe and Norman Yardley have all released a shy of a test hundred in their time, although one must suspect that they probably did not try to get a six than they did.
