Harry Brook said he felt a sense of relief after his maiden one-day international hundred paved the way for his first win as England captain.
Following heavy defeats by world champions Australia at Trent Bridge and Headingley, England had to win at Chester-le-Street on Tuesday to keep the five-match series alive.
Brook came in to bat with England struggling at 11-2 after Australia fast bowler Mitchell Starc had removed both openers.
But the 25-year-old Yorkshireman responded with a superb 110 not out. He received excellent support from Will Jacks in a match-changing stand of 156.
By the time rain curtailed England’s pursuit of a target of 305, they had long since done enough to win by 46 runs on the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method.
It was yet more evidence of Brook’s talent and temperament with the novice captain, leading England this series in place of the injured Jos Buttler, appearing in just his 18th ODI.
Brook was simply pleased to be back in the runs.
“I’m relieved, for sure,” he told reporters. “It’s nice to get that first hundred on the board and hopefully there’s plenty more to come.”
“I feel like I’ve been a little bit stop-start this summer. I’ve had a lot of starts 30s and 40s and then not managed to convert, which is frustrating.
“To do that today, I feel like I’m back in a good place. Obviously it’s nice to score runs against Australia, but scoring runs is amazing, no matter who it is against.”
Brook came under fire for his post-match comments following England’s defeat in the series opener in Nottingham when he tried to explain some loose dismissals by saying: “If you get caught somewhere on the boundary or in the field then who cares?”
But Brook was adamant he had been misunderstood.
“I think people took that a little bit the wrong way,” he said. “You’ve got to go out and play fearlessly and almost have that ‘who cares?’ attitude but that’s not a ‘who cares if we lose?’ attitude. We all want to win, but you don’t want to go out and have that fear of getting out.
“You’ve seen it so many times in the Test environment, at the start Stokesy was getting out caught at mid-on which is unheard of before, so you’ve got to go out with that fearless attitude and try to take it to the bowlers.”
Australia coach Andrew McDonald was left to rue the absence of key spinner Adam Zampa, a late withdrawal through illness, as England ended his side’s run of 14 consecutive ODI wins.
McDonald had no doubt about Brook’s quality, saying: “Full credit to Harry. He’s an impressive player and he’s going to have a long career for England.
“He’s going to give us some headaches over the journey. The way he played, the way he led today…sometimes you’ve got to take your hat off to the opposition. This is one of those moments.”
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