Cook at the Double - Day Three at Edgbaston

On 27^th July 1990 I was lucky enough to be at Lord’s when Graham Gooch turned the first ball after tea, from Ravi Shastri, behind square on the leg side to bring up the only test triple century scored by an Englishman in my lifetime. I was especially lucky since it was only seen by spectators in the ground: the BBC, showing their usual sense of priorities where cricket is concerned, were busy showing the expectant millions the runners and riders at Doncaster. 

Since that happy July day, so Englishman has exceeded 250, let alone challenged Gooch’s score, but for much of today it appeared that Alastair Cook, the protégé of Gooch, was going to change that. In the end he had to settle for 294, rather surprisingly caught near the point boundary, but spectators at Edgbaston can at least say that they were there when England passed 700 for the first time since Hutton’s test at the Oval in 1938. For those of us who have been watching England play test cricket for a while this is taking some getting used to. 

It is hard for any bowler to emerge with much credit when the opposition make 700, but Praveen Kumar and Mishra at least kept going and the attack kept their discipline to the extent that England didn’t take the game away in the way that Kevin Pietersen had threatened to do yesterday. Instead Cook, ably supported by Morgan, simply went on and on, and when Morgan, Bopara and Prior departed in quick succession he found a worthy ally in the ever-impressive Tim Bresnan, who started watchfully but seemed to be rather enjoying himself by the end. 

All the plaudits, though, must go to Cook. He had looked scratchy and poorly balanced in the first two tests and wasn’t fluent at the start of this innings, but what he lacks in style he makes up for in concentration, shot selection and fitness. After batting for more than twelve hours he was still scampering singles and turning ones into twos without breaking sweat. Indeed, he went for much of the day without hitting a boundary, but such was his fitness and appetite for runs he as able to score at a reasonable rate anyway. At the age of twenty-six he already has nineteen hundreds, two of them doubles, and an average just under fifty: England’s batting records are there for the taking. 

Having reached the scarcely believable heights of 710-7, England then had the added bonus of removing Virender Sehwag first ball for a king pair. Anderson bowled just about the perfect ball to him, tempting him to drive but just shaping it away to take the outside edge. Had Swann had his leg before appeal against Gambhir upheld, as it should have been, then they would have been delirious – as it is they will have to settle for simply being ecstatic. India will have to bat out of their skins to come close to saving this match: the evidence of the series so far is that they haven’t got a hope.