England captain Harry Brook talks to Sam Curran and Jos Buttler. (Getty Images) NEW DELHI: England captain Harry Brook admitted that costly lapses in the field – including the outfield catcher Sanju Samson – played a decisive role in his team’s defeat to India in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup semi-final on Thursday.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SIGN UP NOW!During the post-match presentation, Brook admitted that England misunderstood the conditions and failed to execute their plans, particularly in the field, allowing India to post a dismal total.
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“We thought there might have been possession, spin in the first innings, we slipped on the bat nicely and India batted well. I’ll put my hands up and admit I made a big mistake when I dropped Samson. We weren’t good enough in the field. We executed badly and we can’t afford to do that against India,” Brook said.The turning point came when Brook dropped Samson while the Indian batter was on just 15. This chance, off the bowling of Jofr Archer, proved extremely costly as Samson continued to anchor the Indian innings with a commanding knock.Samson’s 89 off 42 balls propelled India to a formidable 253/7, a total that ultimately proved beyond England’s reach.
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“Yeah, catches win games, right? Unfortunately it didn’t stay in my hands and yeah, it’s just one of those things. Unfortunately I didn’t catch it and he played a very, very good innings as well and probably won it,” Brook said.The England captain admitted that the missed opportunity was on his mind throughout the chase.“Obviously it’s in the back of your mind as the game goes on. I kept looking at the scoreboard and he was putting up runs. I was like, ‘I’m going to have to play 80 or 90 tonight.’ It’s not ideal, but now it’s happened,” he added.Despite the defeat, Brook found positives in England’s spirited chase, particularly praising young batsman Jacob Bethell for his fearless century.Bethell smashed 105 off just 48 balls, while Will Jacks contributed 35 during a counter-attack that briefly revived England’s hopes.“Bethell was absolutely incredible, he’s going to make good money. To see him take it off the ball showed the world what he can do,” Brook said.England eventually finished on 246/7 and, despite Bethell’s heroics and a late blitz from Archer, went down. But Brook insisted his side can be proud of their campaign.“We had a good tournament; we should be extremely proud of the way we played. We stuck with it all game, unfortunately we were on the wrong side,” he said.
