Harry Brook led from the front with a brilliant unbeaten century to guide England into the semi-finals of the 2026 T20 World Cup after a tense two-wicket win over Pakistan in Pallekele. Promoting himself to No. 3, Brook responded to a lean run of scores with a match-defining knock, reaching his hundred in just 50 balls and almost single-handedly carrying England through a tricky chase of 165.
England’s pursuit got off to the worst possible start when Shaheen Shah Afridi struck with the very first ball, and he went on to remove three batters in the powerplay. Usman Tariq added further pressure in the middle overs as England slipped to 58 for 4 and later 103 for 5. While wickets kept falling around him, Brook counterattacked confidently, taking on both pace and spin, using his feet well against the spinners and finding boundaries regularly. He brought up his century with consecutive boundaries off Afridi before falling to a yorker with only ten runs needed. England still made heavy weather of the finish, losing two more wickets before Jofra Archer sealed the win with a boundary in the final over.
Earlier, Pakistan posted 164 for 9 but once again relied heavily on Sahibzada Farhan, who top-scored with 63 and remains their only batter to register a half-century in the tournament. After early wickets, Farhan and Babar Azam tried to rebuild, but their partnership lacked momentum. Liam Dawson’s disciplined spell of 3 for 24 choked the middle overs, while Adil Rashid and the seamers kept things tight at the death. Late hitting from Fakhar Zaman provided a brief boost, but Pakistan still finished with what looked a slightly underwhelming total.
England were far from perfect. Their fielding was sloppy at times, and most of their batting line-up struggled again, with none apart from Brook passing 30. However, the win secured their place in the semi-finals with a game to spare and kept alive their record of reaching the knockout stage in every men’s T20 World Cup since 2016.
Pakistan now face a must-win final group match against Sri Lanka and will need other results to go their way. For England, the result underlined both their dependence on Brook’s form and their ability to grind out wins even without a complete team performance.
