‘There was a lump in my throat. You could not script it’
ALASTAIR COOK signed off from Test cricket here yesterday and admitted: ‘Sometimes dreams come true.’ Cook described his experience at the Oval, where he has received 15 standing ovations since the start of the game, as ‘the most surreal four days of my life’. With England needing seven more wickets to wrap up victory, Cook completed a superb innings of 147, and a grand total of 12,472 Test runs at an average of 45.35, and earned his most emotional ovation when Jasprit Bumrah’s wild overthrow for four completed his 33rd and final hundred. ‘I remember cutting it to get to 97,’ said Cook, ‘and thinking, “Three more to go”. ‘As he let it go I thought, “He’s launched that pretty hard”. Then I saw Ravi Jadeja wasn’t anyway near it. I thought it was four straight away. ‘It was very emotional. There was definitely a lump in my throat. I had about 30 friends and family here, so you couldn’t have scripted it. It’s one of those days where you will look back and forever go, “Wow!” ‘From a selfish point of view, I couldn’t have asked for a better week. There have been bigger things in more important games. But in one way, people said the pressure would be off. In another way, each reception
I’ve got has increased the pressure not to get nought or get out early every morning. It’s a nice way to go.’ Did the fact that he had marked his final Test appearance with a total of 218 runs make him reconsider his decision to call it a day at the age of 33? Not a bit of it. ‘It absolutely confirms it,’ he said. ‘This decision was not just a culmination of three or four bad games. It came from 12 or 18 months. ‘It’s just time, for me and for my family. And it’s always nice people wanting a little bit more from you, rather than kicking you out. To go out on your own terms makes it perfect.’ All that remains now is for England to complete victory and his wife Alice, who was here to cheer him on, to give birth to their third child.