• Century secures win against Pakistan in T20 World Cup

• Brook: ‘It’s nice to see some rewards for my hard work’

Sometimes Harry Brook makes everything look easy but some of his recent experiences have been anything but painless, and after scoring a sublime century to steer his team into the World Cup semi-finals England’s white-ball captain described his past few months as “probably the hardest of my life”.

Brook endured a disappointing Ashes, scoring just two half-centuries and averaging 39.77, his second-worst in a Test series in which he has played more than a single innings. It was towards the end of his time in Australia that it was revealed he had got in to a drunken altercation with a nightclub bouncer in Wellington on the eve of the final fixture of his first overseas tour as an international captain, a controversy which has dogged him since.

• Super 8s: England, 166-8, bt Pakistan, 164-9, by 2 wickets

• Captain Brook hits 100 to set up final-over win

For all their faults and frailties, their fluffs and fumbles, England are also the first team to secure a place in the World Cup semi-finals, their spot secured by victory over Pakistan and by the sensational Harry Brook century that drove them towards it.

After coming in just one ball into the innings and watching the rest of England’s top five falter, England’s captain transformed a crisis into what, for all that a couple of late wickets got the nerves jangling, became something approaching a cruise.