Cook’s the hero with double hundred

Brilliant 244 finally puts the pressure on Australia

The relief of reaching his hundred on day two was replaced by pure joy yesterday when Alastair Cook doubled it at the MCG to carry england on his broad shoulders and move to the verge of carrying his bat in one of his most brilliant, defiant innings.

What a moment it was for Cook when he played the most perfect of straight drives, a rare shot for him, off Jackson Bird to take him to his fifth double hundred and one of the most satisfying knocks of his long career.

And what a third day this was for england with Cook, who had batted more than 10 and a half hours for his unbeaten 244 by the close, and the unlikely batting figure of Stuart Broad taking them to a potentially match-winning lead.

Yes, the Ashes may have gone but there is plenty still at stake in this fourth Test, not least proof of the continuing excellence and desire of an opener who has made it perfectly clear now that he will be around for some time to come.

The last thing england needed after losing the urn in Perth was a repeat of the last Ashes tour when one of their greatest teams unravelled spectacularly to crash to a 5-0 defeat that ended with the most bitter of recriminations.

There are none of the divisions within this team that ripped apart the one led by Cook four years ago, even after the self-inflicted absence of their best player in Ben Stokes that has proved so costly to england this time.

At the very least england put themselves in a position, with a lead of 164, where Australia will have to play exceptionally well to deny them what would be a more valuable victory than any ‘dead rubber’ deserves to be.

For that england are almost totally indebted to Cook who relentlessly demonstrated the incredible reserves of concentration, application and, this time, no little flair that remains lacking in so many of his team-mates. Rarely in his record-breaking career can Cook have played an innings as emphatic as this as he became the first englishman to make 11 scores of 150-plus and then overtook Mahela Jayawardene, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Brian Lara to become the sixth highest runscorer in Test history.

And in another record-breaking day for england’s best- ever batsman, Cook reached the highest score made by a visiting player in an MCG Test to overtake the mark of 208 set by the great Viv Richards. It was even by the close his highest score in Australia, overtaking his 235 at Brisbane in 2010. Only when Cook was again dropped by Steve Smith, this time a difficult low chance at square leg when he had made 153, did he ever look vulnerable.

Cook was indebted to another under- pressure senior man in Broad who provided perfect support in an innings otherwise notable for the soft and naive nature of so many dismissals.

Broad has never been the same batsman who once made a Test century at Lord’s against Pakistan since he was struck in the face by India’s Varun Aaron three years ago but here he showed considerable guts and courage to reach 56.

Only a moment of controversy ended Broad’s defiance when Usman Khawaja was adjudged to have cleanly caught a top-edged pull off Pat Cummins even though it was impossible for the on-field umpires and TV official Joel Wilson to know if it was clean.

how about clear doubt going in favour of the batsman? It was an unsatisfactory end to a quite brilliant display from two englishmen who had only batted together once before in 113 Tests.

From the very first ball of their potentially match-winning ninthwicket stand of 100, Cook trusted Broad with the strike, never wasting the opportunity to take another precious single in what could still be a close game.

Broad repaid that faith by surviving a barrage of short bowling and then taking runs off an Australian attack that has not looked the same without spearhead Mitchell Starc on an MCG pitch that has suited england so much more.

england can only hope their other front-line batsmen were watching, not least Cook’s successor as captain in Joe Root who handed Australia the perfect boost on the third morning by simply giving his wicket away.

Root’s habit of getting out between 50 and three figures is happening far too often for his comfort now and he was furious with himself when he pulled Cummins straight to Nathan Lyon at deep square leg.

Worse was to follow when Dawid Malan became the second england batsman to walk off after being given out lbw to Josh hazlewood by umpire S Ravi and the second to have been found to have insideedged on to his pad. Clearly neither James Vince nor Malan felt bat on ball but where was their self-preservation instinct? Malan should have at least reviewed.

Perhaps the worst example of england’s fecklessness came when Moeen Ali played a frenetic, reckless innings that could have been over at any time and betrayed his total lack of confidence. Surely he cannot play in Sydney next week.

It was left firstly to Chris Woakes to show the front-line batsmen the way in a stand of 59 with Cook and then Broad to add to his four first-innings wickets with a knock of real substance to help Cook get beyond 200.

What a performance by Cook, who ended the third day just Jimmy Anderson’s wicket away from becoming the first englishman to carry his bat in a Test since Mike Atherton against New Zealand 20 years ago, and what a day for england, who ended it on the dizzy heights of 491 for nine.

It may have come after the Ashes were lost but this is some consolation.