Cook joins elite club after scoring century in last Test
England star finally submits on 147 with victory in sight
England’s Alastair Cook is congratulated after reaching his century in his final Test in London yesterday. Cook is retiring from international cricket and yesterday’s innings meant the Essex left-handed opener became the fifth player and first Englishman to score a hundred in both their first and last Tests after Australia’s Reggie Duff, Bill Ponsford and Greg Chappell and India’s Mohammad Azharuddin. England declared on 423-8, giving them a lead of 463 runs.
The long goodbye lasted a week, but still the crowd watched as if Cook’s departure was on a knife edge. It was a measure of his standing with English cricket fans that they were immune to ‘farewell fatigue’ and were tense for every ball he faced.
Abatting collapse saw India reeling at 58/3 at stumps after England set them a victory target of 464 courtesy superlative centuries from Alastair Cook and Joe Root, on day 4 of the fifth and final Test here yesterday.
K.L. Rahul was batting on 46 while Ajinkya Rahane was on 10 after James Anderson scalped Shikhar Dhawan (1) and Cheteshwar Pujara (0). India captain Virat Kohli was sent back for a golden duck by Stuart Broad.
With seven wickets remaining, India still need 406 more runs for a win. Earlier, Cook, playing his final match, cracked 147 while Root made 125 to help England declare on 423/8.
For the tourists, Ravindra Jadeja and Hanuma Vihari grabbed three wickets apiece.
Cook took 286 balls for a patient 147 while Root roared back with 125, his first hundred in 28 innings, as the duo put on a 259-run stand.
Toiling for 112 overs, India’s jittery top order once again flopped as Dhawan (1), Pujara (0) and Kohli (0) were dismissed in quick succession.
Anderson (2/23) equalled Glenn McGrath’s 563 Test wickets and is expected to break the record on Tuesday while Broad (1/17) with 433 wickets is just one short of Kapil Dev’s 434-wicket haul.
The long goodbye lasted a week, but still the crowd watched as if Cook’s departure was on a knife edge. It was a measure of his standing with English cricket fans that they were immune to “farewell fatigue” and were tense for every ball
he faced.
Test innings No. 291 for the country’s all-time leading run-scorer might have felt ceremonial seven days after he announced his retirement, and with England already series winners. The guard of honour formed by India for his first innings could have been the ceremonial high point to close a 161-Test cap career. But he refused to leave. First he said it was over, then he wanted more. Day four found him still at the crease, refusing to go quietly on his last innings holding a bat in the whites of England.
He came out on to the Oval grass last morning with a farewell fifty in his sights. He finally departed his last Test innings when he was dismissed having scored a fairy-tale 147 with the clock in London reading almost exactly 3pm.
His knock helped England declare their second innings at 423 for eight, setting a target of 464 for India to win the fifth and final Test. Skipper Joe Root also helped himself to a century before the hosts suffered a mini collapse, losing six wickets for the addition of 102 runs. Cook, England’s most-capped Test player, walked off to deafening applause and a prolonged standing ovation after being caught behind by Rishabh Pant off the bowling of Hanuma Vihari.
His final 287-ball knock included 14 fours. Left-handed Cook finished with 12,472 Test runs, fifth on the alltime list having moved past Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara earlier in the day. He was dismissed the ball after Root was out for 125 having shared a third-wicket partnership of 259 to take the game away from India.
Twenty-four hours earlier, midway through the afternoon of the third day, Cook ran off the field at the end of India’s first innings and up the steps to pad up, we thought, one final time. England led by 40 runs in a Test with more dramatic tension than most dead rubbers.
When Cook returned to view, behind glass, he stared long and hard at the stage he was about to stride on to, twirling his bat. His eyes were dark and fixed. One more battle, one last show of his mental strength for the scrapbook before farming and county cricket reclaim him. It was the right way for him to bounce down those stairs one last time — with a proper job to do. If the “tank was empty” before he called a halt, the relief seemed to put fresh fuel in him.
In the first innings, he looked more alert, more instinctive. His concentration was sharper. Cook amassed 71 runs to add to his mountain.