COOK’S OFF COLOUR

ALASTAIR COOK was left red-faced after coming off second best against a pink ball yesterday. Opener Cook (below) managed 15 against a Cricket Australia XI following his second-ball duck in England’s opening game at the weekend. What is worrying for the side’s senior batsman is that the ongoing game at the Adelaide Oval is the only chance the tourists will have to face the pink Kookaburra ball before they face Australia in the first day-night Ashes Test at the same venue next month. But Cook’s opening partner Mark Stoneman, who scored an encouraging 61, is backing him to come good. “The way things are going, he’s getting a couple of decent balls early on,” said Stoneman. “That’s the nature of opening the batting. We can’t guarantee that we will spend much time together but things feel good. “Early in your innings, it’s not a good time to get such a delivery. The longer he can spend in the middle, the happier he will be.” Stoneman

(far left), who made his Test debut in the three-match series against West Indies at the end of the summer, added: “The rhythm and timing has been there, and I’m happy with how things are progressing.

“It would have been nice to give it a further lift with a hundred.

“It was pretty disappointing. There was a chance there to get a big score and really get myself into the tour.

“We need to be scoring big hundreds. There are lessons to be learned from today.”

England closed the opening day of this four-day game on 278-8 after other decent contributions from Joe Root (58) and Dawid Malan (63).