Harry Brook earned plenty of praise for his counter-attacking 184* off 169 deliveries on day one of the second New Zealand Test, which came after his side had slumped to 21-3 within seven overs.
Brook struck a total of five sixes and 24 fours, leading the charge in England’s fightback after they lost their top-order to some exceptional bowling from Matt Henry and Tim Southee. Walking in to bat at No.5, he started off aggressively, hitting four fours in the first 11 deliveries that he faced. He got to his 50 in 51 balls and then took another 56 deliveries for his fourth Test ton in five Tests.
Brook ended the day on 184*, piling on an unbeaten 194-run stand with Joe Root, who also scored a hundred. England ended the day at a strong 315-3, piling further misery on the hosts at Wellington.
The 24-year-old has had a stellar start to his Test career, scoring four hundreds and three fifties in nine innings thus far. He has now overtaken Vinod Kambli to score the most runs after nine innings – 807. Kambli had made 798 runs in his first nine Test innings.
Brook, who made his Test debut against South Africa at The Oval in 2022, has scores of 12, 153, 87, 9, 108, 111, 98, 54 and 184* thus far, and averages 100.87 in Tests.
His temperament was highly praised by plenty on social media:
For the last 10 yrs all kids have wanted to Bat and be like Joe Root .. For the next 10 yrs they will all want to Bat like Harry Brook .. #NZvENG
— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) February 24, 2023
Another level from Harry Brook in every sense; he’d largely done well from ok positions on decent batting tracks until now. To score 184* (169) from 21-3 is outrageous.
— Will Macpherson (@willis_macp) February 24, 2023
Harry Brook is making Test cricket look like a video game. Glorious batting.
— Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee) February 24, 2023
One of the most sublime test match hundreds in recent memory. Filled with exquisite stroke after exquisite stroke…Harry Brook gets to 3 figures for the 4th time in Test Cricket. And though it's only his 6th Test, but you can already tell he's destined for greatness… #NZvENG pic.twitter.com/oUqudc7WlU
— Aatif Nawaz (@AatifNawaz) February 24, 2023
https://twitter.com/KP24/status/1629007115850326017?s=20
Harry Brook has already struck twice as many sixes in Test cricket as David Gower and Alec Stewart, and is just five shy of Graham Gooch’s career tally. He’s only been playing 6 months!
— Richard Gibson (@richardgibsonDM) February 24, 2023
I think in @Harry_Brook_88 we are witnessing one of the great cricket talents emerging in front of our eyes. All the best parts of KP in his game and completely fearless. #NZvENG Time will tell but he looks way more than the real deal. He looks like a legend in waiting
— Ian Pont Official (@Ponty100mph) February 24, 2023
https://twitter.com/Amermalik12/status/1629028102738178050
