Brook's Record 202 Can't Save England as Sri Lanka Chase 430 in Historic Rawalpindi Epic

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan — Harry Brook played the greatest one-day innings ever seen in an England shirt on Thursday, and it still wasn't enough. The England captain's 202 off 116 balls — the fastest double century in ODI history, reached in 114 balls — powered England to 429 for 4 at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, only for Sri Lanka to chase 430 with one ball to spare and win by two wickets.

It is the first time in the 55-year history of one-day internationals that a team has lost with a double centurion in its ranks. Sri Lanka's 430 for 8 is the second-highest successful chase in ODI history, behind only South Africa's 438 against Australia at Johannesburg in 2006. The two innings produced 859 runs — and the match was decided off the penultimate delivery, when Janith Liyanage launched Josh Tongue over long-off for six with six needed from the final two balls.

The cruel symmetry will not have escaped Brook. Dismissed off the final ball of England's innings — caught by Sahan Arachchige off Liyanage's bowling — he watched the same man who ended his stay smash the winning blow three hours later.

Brook walked in at No. 4 in the 17th over after the fall of Ben Duckett and simply took the game apart. His hundred came off 75 balls, his second off just 39. Twenty-one fours and ten sixes flew from his bat at a strike rate of 174.14, and he reached 200 in 114 deliveries — three balls faster than Shubman Gill's record of 117, set only 22 days earlier against West Indies in Guwahati. Ishan Kishan's 126-ball double against Bangladesh in 2022 had stood for four years; the record has now fallen twice in three weeks.

Brook became the first England batter to score an ODI double century, obliterating Ben Stokes' 182 against New Zealand at The Oval in 2023. It was the first ODI double hundred in Pakistan — Sri Lanka coach Gary Kirsten watched his 188 not out against UAE at the 1996 World Cup, the previous highest in the country, fall 30 years on.

Brook's 202 is the highest ODI score by a non-opener — beating Glenn Maxwell's 201 not out against Afghanistan at the 2023 World Cup — and the highest by a No. 4, eclipsing Viv Richards' 189 not out in 1984. His 174 runs off 90 balls against fast bowling is the most ever taken off the quicks in an ODI, beating Rohit Sharma's 166 during his 264 against Sri Lanka in 2014. He is the fourth captain to make an ODI double hundred, after Virender Sehwag in 2011, Rohit Sharma in 2017 and Gill last month, beating Andrew Strauss' 158 against India at the 2011 World Cup — the previous best by an England captain.

And then there is the two-man club. Brook is now only the second player after Chris Gayle to own a Test triple century, an ODI double century and a T20 international hundred. Brook's 317 against Pakistan at Multan in October 2024 sits alongside Gayle's twin triples — 333 against Sri Lanka in 2010 and 317 against South Africa in 2005 — while Gayle's ODI 215 against Zimbabwe at the 2015 World Cup and two T20I hundreds complete his set.

England's 429 for 4 was built on more than one man. Tom Banton made 50, Joe Root 69 off 66 balls — becoming the first England batter to 8,000 ODI runs in his 197th match — and Will Jacks detonated an unbeaten 66 off 30 at the death. Root and Brook added 159, and England plundered 296 in the final 25 overs. It is the highest ODI total made in Pakistan and the most Sri Lanka have conceded. Wellalage's 2 for 56 was the only respectable return; nobody else went at under eight an over.

Kusal Mendis' decision to bowl first looked a blunder when he was run out without facing a ball — via Gus Atkinson's fingertips — as Sri Lanka slumped to 24 for 2 in the fifth over.

Then came the counterattack. Player of the match Pavan Rathnayake hammered 130 off 106 balls with 15 fours and three sixes, adding 166 for the third wicket with Avishka Fernando (97). Dasun Shanaka's savage 97 — eight sixes and six fours — then powered a 133-run stand off just 79 balls. Heavy dew hampered England's bowlers as the asking rate never escaped Sri Lanka.

Eight were needed from the final over. Tongue kept England alive, yorking Wellalage and Eshan Malinga with successive balls, but No. 10 Asitha Fernando scrambled Liyanage back on strike. Liyanage's 61 not out off 27 balls sealed the second-highest chase the format has ever seen.

"Unfortunately, it doesn't matter now," Brook said afterwards. "Heart-breaking. I think you've hit the nail on the head there. It's very disappointing that we haven't been able to defend 430, but that's life, that's cricket. You don't see many teams chase down 430 and hats off to Sri Lanka. They've played exceptionally well."

For England, the numbers are damning: bottom of the tri-series after two defeats, they must win their next two matches to reach the final in Lahore. Mendis was elated: "I'm very happy as a captain. Everyone believed we can do it. Every day we talk about showing the character in team meetings, and it's about showing we can get any score."

Brook added: "It was a nice innings but being on the losing side it has no value whatsoever in my eyes." On a night he rewrote the record book twice over: 114 balls, 202 runs — the greatest losing innings ODI cricket has ever seen.