England are drawing confidence from a run of tight victories ahead of their Twenty20 World Cup semi-final against India, captain Harry Brook said, adding that his team’s resilience would be a key factor at the Wankhede Stadium.
England’s route to the last four has not all been smooth sailing, with the two-time champions advancing after wins over Sri Lanka, Pakistan and New Zealand, against whom they needed 43 runs off the final 18 balls to get over the line.
“We’ve won tight games, which in World Cups prove to be very important, and we’ve got a lot of confidence going into the deeper parts of the game,” Brook told reporters yesterday.
“We’ve won games, which we probably shouldn’t have won, and it just feels like we’ve never really been out of any game so far, which holds you in good stead in these world competitions.
Brook’s own form has underpinned that message. The 27-year-old struck a 50-ball hundred to lift England past Pakistan in Pallekele.
“I don’t believe that we need a perfect game to win the competition. The games that we have won have been nowhere near perfect, and we still managed to get the wins convincingly in some of them, and then tight in the other games,” Brook said.
-Reuters
