Multan, Oct 11 Harry Brook, whose sensational 317 played one of the main roles in England thrashing Pakistan by an innings and 47 runs at the Multan Cricket Stadium, said his mindset during a record 454-stand with Joe Root was to just bat as long as possible.
Root and Brook's mammoth partnership of 454 is the highest for England in Test cricket, beating the 411-run stand between Peter May and Colin Cowdrey against West Indies in 1957. The record stand propelled England to declare at 823/7, which was followed by the visitors’ bowling out Pakistan for 220 on day five to complete an astonishing win.
"I enjoyed it a lot. It was tough out there with the heat, but it was good to be out there with Rooty, putting on that partnership. We just wanted to bat as long as possible and get as many runs as we could. It was a good surface to cash in on - and hopefully many more to come," said Brook after getting Player of the Match award.
Stand-in skipper Ollie Pope lauded his batters for posting a mammoth first innings total after allowing Pakistan to make 556 in first innings. "Credit to the bowlers for how they went about their stuff. The fitness they showed - and the same with Joe Root and Harry Brook."
"We knew that the way to win this game was to put a mammoth score on the board. It wasn't just a lead of 100, it was up towards 300. It was awesome. It's never an easy position to be in, 260-odd runs behind... even if you bat as well as you can and make 400 in that innings, we still would have backed ourselves to chase 140 or so."
Pacer Brydon Carse, who picked four wickets on his Test debut, said the visitors’ are buzzing with the win at Multan after being made to toil hard. "It has been awesome. The last five days have been a great experience. To top it off with a win today, the lads are buzzing upstairs. A great result!"
"All of the guys - Root and Brook with the bat, all the bowlers - they really put in a massive effort over the last five days. It feels very rewarding now. We were fortunate yesterday where there was that hour and a half period where we got the ball to reverse swing."
"That was probably as much as we got throughout the game. In the first innings we had thought there would be a period where the ball reversed, so that took us by surprise (that it didn't). Last night was key for us, where we felt we could make some inroads."
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