I made a big mistake: Harry Brook refuses to hide behind excuses after game-changing error costs England the World Cup

Jofra Archer bowled the ball in the right area, and Samson handed a dolley to Brook at mid-on. However, the England skipper failed to grab onto the chance, and the batter made England pay, hitting a total of eight fours and seven sixes in his 42-ball stay, where he batted at a strike rate of 211.90.

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Speaking about the fielding lapses, Brook said, “Absolutely and I'll hold my hands up and say that I made a big mistake there dropping Samson and yeah, catches win matches, that old famous phrase and unfortunately, we just didn't go our way in the field tonight. Another day, it comes off.”

“We just thought that there might have been a little bit of hold early on with the pitch being fresh, and we were expecting probably a little bit more spin in the first innings, but it slid onto the bat nicely. They played extremely well, and all of our lads should be so proud of the way that we played tonight and throughout this competition,” said Brook.

“Just mis-execution here and there. We probably didn't execute as well as we could have. The Indian batters are some of the best batters in the world and if you mis-execute to some of them, it goes out the park. So, we probably didn't execute as well as we could have done, but like I say, we gave it a red hot crack, and unfortunately, we were on the wrong side,” he added.

Bethell's knock

The left-handed batter Bethell single-handedly kept England in the game, as he kept hitting fours and sixes at one end when the asking rate was 13-14 per over. Till the time he was there, England was always in the game, and he only lost his wicket in the final over, where the Three Lions needed 29 runs.

“He was absolutely unbelievable. I think he's gonna earn some serious money in his career, and he's gonna have a hell of a career with England, and yeah, he showed the world how good he is tonight. Unfortunately, we were on the wrong side, but that innings is an extremely big positive to take away from this competition and to see him go out there in the manner that he did, taking it to them from ball one and like I said, showing the world what he can do,” said Brook.

Lastly, Brook said that the entire England team should be proud of their campaign, saying not many teams would have had a crack at the target of 250, but his team showed some real fight in the middle.

“We had a good tournament, to be honest. As I said a second ago, we should be extremely proud of how we played. I said the other day, we're never out of games and that proved again tonight, chasing 250. Other teams could have just folded and crumbled away, but we stuck to it the whole game, and we gave it a red-hot crack as I said, and unfortunately, we were on the wrong side of it tonight,” he added.

With the win over England, India are just one more win away from defending the T20 World Cup title. The Men in Blue will take on New Zealand in the summit clash on Sunday, March 8, at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

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