OVAL AND OUT
Departing Cook top scores as England struggle
ENGLAND produced the good, the bad and the ugly on a day that promised so much but ended with the batsmen again delivering too little.
Alastair Cook’s rendition of his greatest hits, a patient and disciplined half century, full of clips, cuts and the odd pull, was what the crowd had come to see.
But the collapse that followed was just as familiar.
From the moment Joe Root said: “We’ll have a bat thanks,” there was an inevitability the day would revolve around Cook, with the fairytale of another Test ton in his final match very much alive.
There was a presentation of a special 161st Test cap from ECB chairman Colin Graves, then a classy guard of honour by India, with Virat Kohli warmly shaking hands with an opponent he clearly respects.
And of course the Oval rose as one to send Cook bounding to the middle ready to show he could still do a job. Cook, who went on to score 71, said: “Because of the emotion, I didn’t not want to get a score. I was so determined – there is nothing worse than going out without contributing.
“I am pleased to get a score and disappointed to get out when I did.
“The guard of honour from India was great but I was focused on my batting.”
The challenge though was for both teams to put the sentimentality to one side and produce another highquality battle as they have for much of the series.
Batting was not easy, as Cook and indeed the normally free-flowing Moeen Ali, hunkered down for the long haul, grinding out a score and setting a platform – and both were dropped behind the wicket.
Moeen (below) said: “When he was dropped I said, ‘It’s there for you’, but it wasn’t to be.”
This was old-fashioned Test cricket, the sort of which Cook has made a 12year career out of.
The run-rate was painfully low, but it had a purpose in a five-day contest where the likes of Root, Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes could take full advantage later in the day. That plan was fine but if there is one thing that can be relied on when it comes to this England side it is the ability to generate a collapse out of nothing.
Keaton Jennings went for 23 but England reached 133-1 before Cook chopped on. Within nine balls they were 134-4, with Root and Bairstow out for ducks.
Cook added: “I don’t really know why I missed it.
“Whether it kept a bit lower than your subconscious brain thought, whether I could have got forward – I don’t know. But it was disappointing. It was a bad shot.”
Moeen did well to survive for as long as he did to register his slowest ever Test 50 from 167 balls, playing and missing until he eventually edged behind.
There is widespread agreement that Cook is calling it a day at just the right time with his output in steady decline.
But when the rest of the order fail like this, there can be little doubt that the future remains as uncertain as Moeen was outside his off stump.