Harry Brook earned plenty of praise for his counter-attacking 184* off 169 deliveries on day one of the second New Zealand Test, which came after his side had slumped to 21-3 within seven overs.

Brook struck a total of five sixes and 24 fours, leading the charge in England’s fightback after they lost their top-order to some exceptional bowling from Matt Henry and Tim Southee. Walking in to bat at No.5, he started off aggressively, hitting four fours in the first 11 deliveries that he faced. He got to his 50 in 51 balls and then took another 56 deliveries for his fourth Test ton in five Tests.

Brook ended the day on 184*, piling on an unbeaten 194-run stand with Joe Root, who also scored a hundred. England ended the day at a strong 315-3, piling further misery on the hosts at Wellington.

The 24-year-old has had a stellar start to his Test career, scoring four hundreds and three fifties in nine innings thus far. He has now overtaken Vinod Kambli to score the most runs after nine innings – 807. Kambli had made 798 runs in his first nine Test innings.

Brook, who made his Test debut against South Africa at The Oval in 2022, has scores of 12, 153, 87, 9, 108, 111, 98, 54 and 184* thus far, and averages 100.87 in Tests.

His temperament was highly praised by plenty on social media:

https://twitter.com/KP24/status/1629007115850326017?s=20

https://twitter.com/Amermalik12/status/1629028102738178050