Always ready, always steady, COOK
FORMER SKIPPER IS HIS USUAL COOL SELF AS ENGLAND’S NEW CAPS FIND IT TOUGH
ALASTAIR COOK hunkered down for a tough old fight at the Oval and walked off unbowed and unbeaten to remind everyone why he is England’s greatest run scorer.
Cook has been constantly reminded by his old mentor Graham Gooch it is not about how but how many and this was an innings that epitomised the struggle that Test cricket can be.
No-one has relished that battle more than Cook who moved past Allan Border into ninth on the alltime list and will restart his innings this morning on 82 not out and feeling as though it was worth a whole lot more.
England are hardly sitting pretty on 171-4 after a rain-affected day, but they could easily have been blown away by conditions that suited bowling and an attack that knows how to exploit them.
Instead Tom Westley showed a similar level of patience to Cook during his 25 to suggest bigger and better things to come, while Joe Root was a class above.
Batting was tough all day, and it takes a certain kind of doggedness and skill to survive and thrive.
“I’ve always thought Cooky was good and I didn’t learn that today,” said Westley, who shared in a 50-run stand with his Essex team-mate.
“It just shows what happens if you persist and work hard. It did do a bit, it nipped around and it swung, but Cooky being Cooky, he fought through that which is one of his best qualities.
“He works hard for his runs, he’s determined and that showed.”
Root must have given serious consideration to bowling first but, with a batting line-up that has a scorer of four Test hundreds in 2016 at No.8, he wanted to try and control the game.
Unfortunately for Keaton Jennings there was little control during his nineball innings against Vernon Philander, who offered a masterclass in seam bowling and picked him off for a duck.
Westley showed his love for a leg-side flick, but in the first over after lunch he drove at Chris Morris to offer a catch that Faf du Plessis gleefully accepted.
Root was removed by a sensational ball and catch from Philander and wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock, while Dawid Malan had a torrid time before the returning Kagiso Rabada bowled him with a delicious yorker. Rabada said: “We bowled well and there was a lot on offer. Vernon is so skilful in these conditions.”