History man rekindles England’s spirit of 2011
Cook’s record-breaking effort resurrects tour Stand with Broad all but ends fears of whitewash
It was back to the heady, joyous days of seven years past. England outplayed Australia, the Barmy Army outsang their counterparts in the 61,000 crowd, and Alastair Cook outbatted everyone by lasting throughout day three and making his highest score against Australia, beating his 235 in 2010-11.
Cook took his overnight 104 past the highest individual score ever for England at the MCG – Wally Hammond’s 200 in 1928-29 – and past Viv Richards’ 208 for West Indies as the highest innings by anyone against Australia on their most used Test ground. When James Anderson was bounced out by the first ball of the fourth morning, Cook carried his bat for 244 – the highest score made by anyone carrying his bat in Tests. England then claimed an early wicket, Cameron Bancroft bowled by Chris Woakes for 27 with Australia on 51.
It was a wonder of stamina by Cook. Before his innings, he had scored 83 runs in this series; by the end he had made 327 and was the first to carry his is bat since Mike Atherton two decades cades ago.
Partner after r partner even England’s s hitherto unproductive tail-enders ail-enders – joined Cook in stands that ground down Australia, without, of course, affecting the outcome of the he Ashes. Cook put ut on 138 with Joe e Root, then 59 with Chris Woakes, oakes, and in a ninth-wicket -wicket stand that came e to acquire elements of slapstick, 100 with Stuart Broad off 110 balls. ls.
For thousands nds of England supporters, ters, the Cook-broad partnership alone was worth the journey. Their eir batting revived Ashes cricket when it was in danger of flagging, because it tt ef- – fectively ruled out the possibility of a 5-0 whitewash and, in the longer term, promised that Root’s team would be up for the fight in the next series of 2019.
Cook and Broad had played 113 Tests together, yet it was only their second partnership. They made the most of it though, and so did the Barmy Army. “Ali Cook! Ali, Ali Cook!” was their frequent chant, and when Jackson Bird – an inadequate replacement for Mitchell Starc – clocked up his own sort of 100 without taking a wicket, they updated their famous song about Mitchell Johnson to suggest that Bird’s bowling was neither accurate nor excellent.
What a lesson it was on never giving your wicket away for Root to learn from his predecessor. Root was bounced out as artlessly as Woakes was later, in that the trap was set blatantly, and both jumped in, whereas Cook hooked downwards – once when he had 154, and was dropped by Steve Smith low down to his right at square leg, but it was well-middled. If Smith had not been feeling ill – a similar stomach upset to the one Pat Cummins had on day two – he did then.
England conceded two more wickets when they left umpiring judgments unquestioned. James Vince on day two and Dawid Malan on day three inside-edged the ball, yet were given LBW, and it was primarily their fault that they did not bat on because both should have either felt or heard the nick. If Cook as non-striker could not detect it from 20 yards awa away, umpire Ravi could not be ex expected to either.
Jonny Bairs Bairstow and Moeen Ali, like Root, were too eager to cash in to too soon against Australia’s S Starc-less bowling on the s slow, dull pitch. But Coo Cook and Woakes started the ball rolling and, aft after Tom Curran had go gone cheaply on his debut, Broad sensed the moment to charge – and helped Cook t to make Australia’s bowl bowling look almost as impote impotent as in 2010-11.
Even w when averaging 127 in th that series, Cook never st straight-drove so sweetly as he did in this innings innings.
He a appropriated the record, from several holder holders, of the most 150s f for England. It was another warm day, t though not so warm as the second when the wind was hot, and his helmeted head was sweaty, but still he looked cool.
And Cook kept on running hard, like the master of the bleep test that he has always been, which distinguishes him from Geoffrey Boycott and Graham Gooch, who also wanted to bat forever but did not have the same insatiable thirst for ones and twos.
Often Cook’s longer innings have petered out the longer they have gone on, but not this one as he kept reeling off the cuts and the drives. Broad dodged, ducked and deflected the bouncers before exacting retribution: he smote Nathan Lyon for six, and hooked consecutive fours to post the century stand.
After ever-more risky strokes, Broad was dismissed by a diving catch at third man, when Usman
Khawaja obscured the ball after diving. Nevertheless, England’s tail had scored more than normal, not to mention Australia’s last five wickets in their first innings, which had
CT Bancroft
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Total (1 wkt, 16 overs) Fall
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mustered 13. Cook kept on until the end, by when he had faced 409 balls, and still he had not been sated. The memory of his six previous failures must have been vivid.