TON MACHINE ROOT LEADS CHARGE

Joe puts England in charge after Cook lays the foundations

Alastair Cook hung his head in disbelief after wasting a golden opportunity to end his long wait for a century before the man who seems destined to succeed him as England captain showed how to do it.

there was agony for Cook on the third day of the second test as he again fell short of the magic three figures despite looking as solid and unflustered at the crease as at any time in the two years since his last century.

But the problems Cook had in finding fluency in his 211-ball 76 were put into stark perspective by yet another display of the rare class and maturity that has made Joe root England’s outstanding batsman.

this has been another slow, attritional test in conditions that are hardly conducive to entertaining cricket. Yet as soon as root took guard, batting at Grenada’s National stadium was suddenly taken to another level.

there were no problems for the Yorkshireman in reaching three figures — his sixth test century and his first overseas — and his average has now reached a hundred since his return to the England team last summer.

Here he took advantage of the solid platform that had been painstakingly laid by Cook and Jonathan trott to give England a chance of today going on to the sort of total that could put pressure on West indies on the final day.

only a late burst of madness from England which saw Moeen ali run himself out and Ben stokes hit a Devendra Bishoo long-hop straight down deep square leg’s throat spoilt England’s day. they ended on 373 for six, a lead of 74, and root and Jos Buttler will have to stick around for as long as possible today if England are going to dictate terms.

this was hardly a failure for an England captain who has now made four scores of 70-plus in his last seven test innings, but Cook would have given anything to have been able to add those extra, elusive 24 runs.

the brutal reality is that only Mike Brearley among England captains and opening batsmen has gone longer without a hundred than Cook’s 34 innings and he had the advantage of being considered the best leader of them all.

it is now 697 days since Cook made the last of his record 25 test centuries, at Headingley against New Zealand way back in 2013 when everything seemed well with the world of England and their captain.

Here Cook and trott recorded England’s first century opening partnership for 31 innings as England went about their quest for a decisive lead in workmanlike fashion on a slow pitch and an even slower outfield. the second-slowest half-century of trott’s career, which was reached off 137 balls, was also one of the most important for a man who was in almost as great a need of runs as Cook here after his double failure in antigua.

if trott’s wicket came almost out of the blue when he drove the legspin of Bishoo to second slip then Cook seemed sure to make this the day when he finally threw off any doubts about him at the helm for another ashes.

Not only had he been dropped on 29 on the second evening but yesterday he survived an lbw shout on 65 by a whisker when n the deserving g Bishoo saw his review of steve Davis’ not out decision deemed umpire’s call.

Just when Cook was looking at hiss best after lunch, shannon Gabriel — the quickest bowler in this test — went round the wicket, bowled short and wide and somehow forced Cook to inside edge an attempted cut into his stumps.

He stood for a moment, hunched over his bat, before trudging off with a score worth perhaps 20 more because of the slowness of the National stadium outfield but one that to Cook will seem not nearly enough.

When ian Bell also chopped on to Gabriel, a sure sign of a slow surface, West indies were back in the match and England’s nerves were starting to fray. Yet that was to underestimate the extraordinary potential of thet two exciting and proli prolific young Yorkshire b batsmen in England’s middle order. th the lack of touch and confidence that Ga Gary Ballance disp played in the W World Cup now lo looks light years away as he has returned to the test form that made him the iCC’s emerging pla player of 2014. Ba Ballance made 122 in antiguaant and carried on her here, bringing an urgency to England’s innings that w was lacking when they managed to score just 69 runs in an extended morning session.

But if Ballance was busy then root roistered along, reaching 50 off 69 balls and then 100 off 125. He has simply been a class apart almost from the moment England recalled him after leaving him out of the last test of their ashes humiliation and restored him to the middle order where he belongs.

this was his England recordequalling sixth successive test score of 50 or more, a landmark shared with Patsy Hendren, ted Dexter, ken Barrington and Cook himself. No Englishman has ever made seven in succession. at least not until root bats again.

together, root and Ballance took England beyond West indies’ score after tea and added 165 before Marlon samuels found a way through Ballance’s defences, leading to that inexplicable clatter of late wickets.

the late flurry of activity, culminating in stokes being given a salute as a send-off by his bete noire samuels, reduced England’s chances of going to Barbados next week one up.

But while there is root there is hope.