Harry Brook, the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) opener, became the first player to score a century in the 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL). In the exciting match against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at Eden Gardens, the English batter smashed 12 fours and three sixes, scoring an unbeaten 100 off 55 balls.
This was a much-needed boost for the 24-year-old, who had previously scored only 13, 3, and 13 runs in Hyderabad’s first three matches. His outstanding knock enabled SRH to reach a massive total of 228/4. In response to the daunting target, KKR faced lost three wickets within the powerplay with only 20 runs on the board.
However, Nitish Rana‘s impressive innings of 75 off 41 balls and Rinku Singh‘s unbeaten knock of 58 runs off 31 balls provided some momentum to Kolkata’s innings. Despite their efforts, KKR was unable to chase down the target and ended up losing by 23 runs.
Brook’s impressive performance during the match was widely recognised by many. But, his remarks during the post-match presentation raised eyebrows and generated buzz on social media. Upon receiving the Player of the Match award, the 24-year-old English star went on to take a dig at ‘Indian fans’.
“If you’re on social media, and people call you rubbish, you start to slightly doubt yourself. There will be a lot of Indian fans who will be saying well done, but they were slagging me off a few days ago. Glad I can shut them up now,” said Brook at the post-match presentation.
Here is the video:
https://twitter.com/on_drive23/status/1646944618871922688
“Was a special night. Thankfully we got over the line as well. Got a little tense in the middle. A lot of people say that opening the batting in T20 is the best time to bat. I’m happy to bat anywhere. I’ve had a lot of success batting at five. Made my name there. My four Test hundreds will have to be over this one. The crowd was phenomenal tonight. I enjoyed it. I was putting pressure on myself a little bit,” Brook added.