One of the most extraordinary hundreds in ODI history was hit today in Mount Maunganui by England captain Harry Brook, who launched one of the greatest rescue acts in the format’s history to help England recover from 33/5 to eventually end up with 223.
Asked to bat first in testing conditions, the Three Lions got off to a disastrous start, losing Jamie Smith on the very first ball of the match. But things soon got a lot worse as they first slipped to 5/3, then 10/4, then 33/5. At 56/6, it looked like the visitors were on course to get bundled out under 100.
However, this was when Brook launched one of the most extraordinary rescue acts in history, finishing with 135 off 101 balls, hammering a whopping 20 boundaries in total.
On the day, Brook got support from Jamie Overton (46) as the pair added 87 runs for the seventh wicket, but, extraordinarily enough, no other English batter managed to get to double digits. Overton fell with the score on 143, but this was when Brook seriously took matters into his own hands, adding 67 of the remaining 80 runs.
He added 57 of these runs for the final wicket and got to his ton, off 82 balls, smashing three consecutive sixes. He hit four more sixes after that, but perished trying to take Mitchell Santner on as England got bundled out for 223.
This was Brook’s second ton in ODIs, and he became only the second England captain ever to hit 10+ sixes in a single ODI innings.
Most sixes by an England captain in an ODI innings
17 – Eoin Morgan vs Afghanistan in Manchester, 2019
11 – Harry Brook vs New Zealand in Mount Maunganui, 2025
This was also the fourth-most sixes by an England batter in an ODI innings
Most sixes by an England batter in an ODI innings
17 – Eoin Morgan vs Afghanistan in Manchester, 2019
14 – Jos Buttler vs Netherlands in Amstelveen, 2022
12 – Jos Buttler vs West Indies in St George’s, 2019
11 – Harry Brook vs New Zealand in Mount Maunganui, 2025
