Retiring opener set for jubilant end as he frustrates India

Essex man stands firm to close in on half-century Just 32 needed to clinch fifth spot on all-time list

Alastair Cook has lived to fight one final day as an England batsman. From 3pm until the 6.30 close on day three, Cook played and missed with all his old phlegmatism, blocked and accumulated, halted India’s surge and placed England in a position where they will win this match, and this series 4-1, barring miraculous interventions and rain.

Four more runs on day four will give Cook a worthy Test average of 45; 32 more runs will take him past Kumar Sangakkara into fifth place in the list of all-time Test run-scorers, though there can be little comparison between middle-order batsmen – as the top five are – and openers like himself; while 54 more runs will give Cook his 33rd century. Another 154 and Cook will surely have to cancel the announcement of his retirement, because another monumental double-century would prove that he has not lost his edge, and that the only thing missing this summer has been a true pitch.

Whatever the fourth day brings, however, Cook can celebrate the finest farewell any batsman of any Test country has staged at the Oval, following his 117 runs so far. Sir Jack Hobbs did not score a fifty and Sir Donald Bradman did not get off the mark. Sir Vivian Richards scored 60, but West Indies lost; David Gower did not know he was playing his last Test, blithely assuming that selection would be based on merit. Of England’s more recent stalwarts, Alec Stewart managed 38 on his home ground, Michael Atherton 13 and eight before he was Warned and Mcgrathed one last time.

Before his final innings, Cook waited at the top of the stairs that lead down from the dressing room, leaning on his bat, waiting for Keaton Jennings to join him. It was a lovely afternoon for a farewell, the ground full, and Cook would have been guaranteed yet another standing ovation if he had got a firstballer. But the old campaigner toughed it out one more time.

Only famous American actresses have had more official partners than Cook: Jennings is one of 12 since Andrew Strauss. But this summer, after a promising comeback against Pakistan, Jennings’s game

has not progressed; he keeps getting out in the same ways, this time shouldering arms.

It is not as if Jennings has made himself indispensable in the field, as he has spilt chances wherever he has been posted: at silly point on the latest occasion, when his height and stiffness stopped him getting down low. He might yet win a place on the plane to Colombo, but James Vince and Liam Livingstone should be given boarding passes ahead of Jennings. Moeen Ali again did his best at No3, without convincing, so the match was still in the balance when Joe Root joined Cook, England 102 ahead.

As a leading actor on the stage, Root used Cook’s platform to exhibit his skills again, one backfoot force off Ravindra Jadeja bringing the house down.

With the weight lifted from his shoulders, the Pataudi Trophy in his bag, and this England team at their best in defending a target, as evidenced at Edgbaston and Southampton, Root has already almost taken the game away from India.

England needed Cook’s second innings because their lead was nothing like what they had been led – by India’s lower order in this series – to believe it would be, when India were 174 for six overnight. Previously it had been six and out – or, more specifically, six down and in effect all out. But two fresh India’s faces changed the pattern into which their team-mates had got bogged down.

One was Hanuma Vihari, who had been extremely vulnerable to bouncers at the start of his innings and Test career; and England had only to call for a review to have had him dismissed leg-before by Stuart Broad. But the debutant blossomed to unfurl a few sumptuous coverdrives and join four other Indian batsmen in this series to reach fifty.

The second fresh Indian face had a luxuriant moustache and a rascal’s smile, especially when he drove James Anderson straight for six. The scoreline going into this Test would more likely have been 2-2 if Jadeja had been selected instead of the half-fit Ravichandran Ashwin at the Ageas Bowl, where the surface would have suited his brisk spinners. With his unbeaten 86 and four wickets so far, Jadeja has shown India what they have missed.

Just as Jos Buttler and England’s tail had batted easily on the second morning to add 134 for their last three wickets, so did Jadeja in adding 118 for India’s last four wickets. Root’s good captaincy made Moeen switch to the Vauxhall End, so that the cross-wind drifted his off-spin away from right-handers as well as beating the inside edge, resulting in two wickets.

But the rest of England’s bowling was unthreatening on the third day by comparison with the second.

So this was no occasion for sentiment when Cook batted again. To the end England have needed his virtues – as no replacement is yet in sight for Strauss, who retired six years ago, or himself. Today, Cook will leave a hole in England’s top order, and their slip cordon, and even in the nation’s affections.