IT’S GAME ON AT LAST

Series lost, but Cook hits ton as England shows some fight

ALASTAIR Cook rebounded from his recent form slump in spectacular fashion to score an unbeaten century after Stuart Broad produced his best effort with the ball as England enjoyed one of its best days of the Ashes series yesterday.

England ripped through Australia’s batting line-up, then made a powerful start to its first-innings reply on the second day of the fourth Test. Cook, 104 not out, brought up his hundred in the last over of the day when he smashed Australian captain Steve Smith for four, reaching the milestone off 166 balls after four hours at the crease.

Having surrendered the Ashes after losing the first three Tests in the five-match series, the tourists turned the pressure back on Australia with bat and ball on a baking hot day at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Australia lost its last seven wickets for only 67 runs to be all out for 327 soon after lunch before England made it to stumps on 2-192, still 135 behind.

TWICE Alastair Cook has left Australia without an Ashes win, wiped out 5-0.

But there was a winning series in the middle, too, when Cook was unstoppable, and while his MCG century may seem too little too late this time around, it was the mark of a Test champion not willing to give up the fight for his country.

Aided by an all-in effort from veteran quick Stuart Broad, who was a whitewash victim himself in 2013, they turned from battlers to beasts yesterday and feasted on runs and wickets that had been out of reach through the three Tests so far.

It was the first century against Australia since 2011 for Cook, who had only passed 20 once this series before he arrived in Melbourne. He had not racked up three figures at the MCG either.

But with 11,700 Test runs under his belt, Cook, unflappable making a duck or a double-century, was not fretting, and found his way to a century Broad believes could turn “big”.

“He’s not someone who gets particularly fazed or down. He went through so much with his captaincy I’m not sure a bit of stick about not making runs is going to bother him,” Broad said after he finished with 4-51 himself.

“He has these periods where he might not get the runs he wants, then he gets a big score. He’s someone who doesn’t just deal in little hundreds. When he gets them he goes big.

“It shows a huge amount of character to be under that sort of scrutiny and pressure and come out and deliver any sort of performance let alone a hundred like ‘ Cooky’ has just done.”

It was Cook’s best score since bashing out 243 against the West Indies in August and his first time past 50 since then. He had averaged 14.4 in 10 innings since, so the questions about his future could have rightly been considered warranted.

But as he moved past Allan Border on the all-time Test run-scoring list, with only seven players, and only one Australian in Ricky Ponting in front of him, he answered those questions and then some, much like his bowling teammate.

Australian captain Steve Smith endured a frustrating day for several reasons. It started when he was the first wicket to fall, chopping on a wide delivery to fall for 76 to hand Tom Curran his maiden scalp.

“Steve is in some pretty good form. He’s a world-class batter, he’s the No.1 batter in the world,” spinner Nathan Lyon said.

“So to get out the way he got out, I think he was pretty disappointed.”

Smith’s job in the field was made harder by the injury-enforced absence of left-arm quick Mitchell Starc, while Pat Cummins struggled with a stomach bug and managed only 11 overs. England had never been two down for so many runs in this series. Joe Root is unbeaten on 49, with the current captain and former skipper both well set in their 112run stand.

Broad, having been spared the axe after logging the worst figures of his Test career in Perth, removed Cummins and Jackson Bird to help his side clean up the tail quickly.

“We know that we’ll need three more fantastic days to win this Test,” Broad said. “It’s not going to be easy to go and take 20 wickets here, but we’ve put ourselves in a position where we could.”