Black Caps vs England: How high can Harry Brook go, after he demoralises hosts

Harry Brook has proven near unstoppable in test cricket, which poses the question: how high can he go?

England’s new cricketing megastar and record-setter resumes on day two of the second test on Saturday unbeaten on 184, his team 315-3 and in the box seat with the Black Caps already struggling for answers after a dream start.

Could his coach Brendon McCullum’s epic 302, posted against India at the Basin Reserve nine years ago, even loom into view if he gets a flyer? With Brook you could not rule anything out on a pitch that can provide a day two runfest.

“No, I haven’t thought about that at all,” he said with a grin. “My Dad’s highest score is 210 and my highest [first-class] score is 194 so that’s in the back of my mind at the minute. Obviously I’ve got to face the first ball tomorrow which is the main thing.”

Two days after his 24th birthday, Brook combined with Joe Root for an unbroken stand of 294 – England’s third-highest for the fourth wicket.

Root’s century, his 29th, was almost an afterthought even if he raised the biggest roar of the day from the sellout crowd at the 6750-capacity Basin as the rain tumbled.

All this after Matt Henry, a new father who missed the 267-run defeat at Bay Oval, scythed through the touring side with help from a brilliant Michael Bracewell catch to reduce England to 21-3. It all went awry very quickly on a familiar glowing greentop, with Neil Wagner conceding 101 off 17 overs, another horror show where he offered little punch or movement and was easy pickings.

Brook never let up from the moment he clattered home skipper Tim Southee for three successive boundaries. Advancing menacingly, or shuffling about the crease, Brook hit 24 fours and five sixes in his 169-ball knock, including successive sixes off Daryl Mitchell which were Kevin Pietersen-esque.

“We were just trying to put the bowlers off their lengths, moving up and down the pitch and just trying to rotate the strike and create a partnership,” Brook said.

At stumps, after raising his fourth test century, Brook’s career read 807 runs, average 100.87, strike rate 99. He passed India’s Vinod Kambli’s 798 to claim the world test record for most runs from his first nine innings.

At stumps his test average sat at over 100; his strike rate, 99. Every chance, now, he’ll race to another record of fastest to 1000 runs (the record is 12 innings, jointly held by Herbert Sutcliffe and Everton Weekes).

“It’s been a good few months, thank you,” he said, having plundered in Pakistan and fetched $2.57 million at his first Indian Premier League auction to Sunrisers Hyderabad.

For the hosts, a royal chance to reclaim control of the two-test series went up in smoke, and any hope of a series-levelling victory could be gone by lunchtime on Saturday if Brook, Root and then Ben Stokes put the foot down.

Henry started superbly, hitting the top of off stump length and nibbling the ball off the pitch with a hint of outswing. He finished with 2-64 off 15 overs, clearly the pick. Several well directed Henry bouncers unsettled Brook but it didn’t last, and the best they could hope for was an inside edge or two, or a mistimed clout sailing just wide of fielders.

Southee swung the ball early and lured Ben Duckett into a false shot but struggled for consistency. Out-of-contract Trent Boult and Colin de Grandhomme were both sorely missed, while Blair Tickner, who along with Scott Kuggeleijn was dropped and Will Young summoned to bolster the batting, looked a better bet than Wagner with the bounce he may have generated.

Said Henry: “From a bowling point of view we got things right in periods but couldn’t string it together long enough to create that pressure.

“He [Brook] is in fantastic form and obviously played some incredible shots out there today. We showed in periods how we need to bowl to him. He countered that, but we’ve got to make sure we’re better for that little bit longer.”

AT A GLANCE

Harry Brook’s test scores for England (debut in September 2022):

12 v South Africa at The Oval

153 & 87 v Pakistan at Rawalpindi

9 & 108 v Pakistan at Multan

111 v Pakistan at Karachi

89 & 54 v New Zealand at Tauranga

184* v New Zealand at Wellington

Total (at stumps on day one): 9 innings, 807 runs, average 100.87, strike rate 99