CHENNAI: Over the last seven months or so, English cricket fans extensively googled Gilbert Jessop. The owner of the English record for the fastest Test 100 (76 balls), it was threatened on multiple occasions in the Bazball era.
One man responsible for threatening that record several times was Harry Brook, who played his first Test in September 2022. Even in a turbo-charged England batting unit, Brook stood out for the manner in which he made runs. Pacers were treated with disdain irrespective of the situation. For him, defensive shots were anathema. While he fell short of the record every time, his then four-Test career (coupled with some promise in his nascent white-ball career) convinced Sunrisers Hyderabad to make him one of their highest-paid players after an intense tug-of-war with Rajasthan Royals (secured his services for Rs 12.5 cr from a base price of Rs 1.5 cr).
Post that auction, Brook threatened Jessop’s record a few more times. When he took strike for Hyderabad in his first match against Rajasthan Royals, the hype, understandably, was sky-high. Here was one of the sport’s principal shapeshifters of the last year; a batter from the future who had already seemingly married effortlessly hitting at a strike rate that didn’t make much sense.
That world came crashing down against the Royals. Off to a bad start and chasing plenty, Brook scratched, prodded, poked and was largely unsure — basically everything he hadn’t been for England — before losing stumps off Yuzvendra Chahal. Thirteen off 21 in 28 minutes. Playing against elite spinners on Indian pitches can be tough and it showed. That continued in the second match against Lucknow Super Giants. This time, though, it was a much shorter stay before Ravi Bishnoi had him stumped to a nothing-shot. Three off four in five minutes.
With a seeming weakness against spin, Hyderabad opened with him to give him a better match-up against Punjab Kings but he was bowled cheaply; an Arshdeep Singh knuckleball doing the business. Against a Kolkata team loaded with all kinds of spinners, Hyderabad were always going to give one of their biggest signings another go at opening. On Friday under the Eden lights, Brook finally had his deliverance.
Firstly, it’s important to place on record Kolkata’s slightly perplexing strategy of not opening with spin. In Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine, they have two spinners capable of operating inside the first six overs. While it perhaps showed a lack of foresight, Brook gleefully accepted the hospitality to become the fifth Englishman to score a 100 in the IPL. His unbeaten 100 off 55 was laced with three sixes — a trademark lofted off-drive was high art while the cuts over point was liquid Brook — and 12 boundaries.
Brief scores:
SRH 228/4 in 20 overs (Brook 100 n.o; Russell 3/22) bt KKR 205/7 in 20 overs (Nitish 75, Rinku 58 n.o).