- Unlock more of the best of our cricket coverage with a DailyMail+ subscription – brilliant exclusives, in-depth insight and the writers you love every day
Harry Brook struck his first Twenty20 hundred on Tuesday, sending England into the semi-finals of the Twenty20 World Cup in style.
The England captain reached his ton in just 50 balls, looking at his explosive best even as a succession of his team-mates struggled to get going in Pallekele.
Here, Daily Mail Sport picks out the six best England T20 innings of all time.
6. ALEX HALES: 116* v Sri Lanka, Chittagong, March 2014
Hales bulldozed his way to England’s maiden T20 hundred to seal his side’s only win of the 2014 World Cup and condemn eventual champions Sri Lanka to their only defeat.
In navigating England to their then-record chase of 190, the destructive former Nottinghamshire opener put out of mind both a shambolic fielding display by his team, including four dropped catches and a missed run-out, plus a disastrous start that saw England two wickets down without a run on the scoreboard.
He also took advantage of being dropped on 55 during a 152-run stand with Eoin Morgan, and Sri Lanka’s spinners being unable to grip a wet ball – Ajantha Mendis was belted for 25 in one over towards the death – but captain Stuart Broad professed it to be ‘one of the best knocks’ he’d ever seen. For its groundbreaking nature alone, it earns a place in this list.
5. BEN STOKES: 52* v Pakistan, Melbourne, November 2022
As the current England side will attest, winning ugly is better than not winning at all, and this dog of an innings meant Stokes had twice got his team over the line in World Cup finals.
Fighting for any semblance of fluency on a poor surface, against a pacy Pakistan attack, he anchored the pursuit of 138, turning 24 off 34 balls into a maiden half-century in the process.
Like the 50-over World Cup final at Lord’s, fortune favoured him – in this instance when Shaheen Shah Afridi jarred his knee catching Harry Brook, and could not run in when asked to return to the attack.
When spinner Iftikhar Ahmed was asked to complete his over, Stokes pounced, miscuing one blow just short of long-off, but then slapping him for an offside four and launching him back over his head for six.
With the required rate moderate, Stokes and Brook dug in and despite allowing it to touch nine an over around the latter’s dismissal, crucially Stokes was there to muscle the winning run.
4. PHIL SALT: 141* v South Africa, Manchester, September 2025
Salt broke his own record for England’s highest individual score and also registered the country’s fastest hundred, off just 39 balls, on a night when the record books were torched.
A belter of a pitch at Old Trafford had seen Jos Buttler require just 30 deliveries to contribute 83 to the first ever 300-plus total in a match between two Test nations.
Buttler departed with a look of anguish when the 126-run opening stand was terminated via an effortless piece of timing that picked out the fielder in the deep.
It was to Salt’s credit that he recognised the opportunity to cash in and did so, crashing 23 boundaries in all, punishing a couple of free hits offered by unusual profligacy from Kagiso Rabada and continuing relentlessly to the final ball of the innings after Kwena Maphaka trod on the boundary cushion in the process of taking a catch.
3. JOE ROOT: 83 v South Africa, Mumbai, March 2016
This was pure batting genius from a player whose single failure during an exceptional England career was to conquer the shortest format. On nights like this at the Wankhede Stadium, you wondered how.
Root did not walk to the crease until the fifth over, but did so in the knowledge that it would take a record World Cup chase, and the second largest in T20 internationals, of 230 to keep tournament hopes alive.
His was the slowest half-century of four in the match, but had the biggest impact as he turned the pace of South Africa’s lauded attack against them, slicing, glancing, ramping and sweeping either to or over the rope across a 44-ball stay.
Despite the gargantuan target, the Yorkshireman had reduced the equation to 11 off 11 deliveries when he flipped a Rabada full toss to deep midwicket. England won by two wickets.
2. JOS BUTTLER: 101* v Sri Lanka, Sharjah, November 2021
Despite his current malaise, it must not be forgotten just how influential Buttler has been as a top-order batsman in this format.
Known for his spectacular hitting, it was a contribution of a different ilk that should be recognised as his best. England’s innings was languishing at 35 for three, but a player who had thrashed an unbeaten 71 off 32 balls in victory against Australia 48 hours earlier read the situation and played to it.
The first task was to absorb the pressure, stabilising things with a half-century off 45 balls, his slowest in 20-over cricket for England, before upping the tempo in conjunction with Morgan, as 116 runs came off the final 10 overs. The last of his six sixes, caressed over deep square leg, came from the final ball of the innings.
Paced perfectly, England’s 163 for 4 was too many for the Sri Lankans despite the heavy dew proving a leveller and it helped Morgan’s team place one foot in the semi-final.
1. HARRY BROOK, 100 v Pakistan, Pallekele, February 2026
This extraordinary one-man show literally came from nowhere.
Brook has spent several weeks vowing to take responsibility for his off-field actions following the Wellington misdemeanour that landed him with a £30,000 fine and took him to within a whisker of being stripped of the England white-ball captaincy.
Now, here he was taking it on the field, walking to the crease for the second ball of a chase of 165 having never previously gone in above No 4.
Embracing the change suggested by coach Brendon McCullum, he refused to let Pakistan’s bowlers settle, belting Mohammad Nawaz for 16 of the 17 runs he conceded at the end of the powerplay, and playing a different game to those at the other end, making 65 per cent of the score while he was at the crease.
The audacity of his striking – such as the slaps for six and four that took him to a 50-ball hundred – were something to behold. A shellshocked Shaheen said: ‘I’ve never seen a batsman like him.’
It was the first century by a captain at a T20 World Cup and sent England into the semi-finals at the earliest opportunity.