COOK’S GRAND FINALE
ENGLAND’S RECORD-BREAKING BATSMAN SIGNS OFF WITH A CENTURY:
Well, there have been worse days at the cricket. In fact, there cannot have been many better ones for england even in the rich history of this famous old ground. The fourth day of the final Test at The Oval truly had everything.
It can safely be assumed the 19,300 who made the effort to be here on a Monday had full value for money, that’s for sure. The sight of Alastair Cook making an emotional century in his final innings for england and soaking up the sustained applause of a crowd who had willed him on to every run was more than enough excitement for most days.
But there was also a first century in 28 innings for Cook’s successor as england captain, Joe Root, in the first total of 400-plus by any side in this Test summer to set up the push for a 4-1 victory against the best team in the world.
Just for good measure, there was Jimmy Anderson roaring in from the Vauxhall end to take two wickets in his second over to draw level with Glenn McGrath as the most prolific fast bowler in Test history.
And we haven’t even mentioned the golden duck for Virat Kohli, snared by Stuart Broad, that left India floundering on two for three after being set a nominal 464 to win or, more feasibly, 118 overs to survive in this extraordinary match.
The only person who perhaps had mixed feelings about it all was Mick Jagger, who by the close found himself £140,000 out of pocket because of his pre-match pledge to donate cash for landmarks to Chance for Shine.
It was money well spent, not least the £20,000 Jagger stumped up to see Cook bow out in fairy-tale fashion after finding at last the form and fluency that had deserted him all summer to reach the 33rd and final century of his career.
We started this penultimate day of a long international summer daring to dream Cook would add the 54 runs he needed to go out the way he came in 12 years ago with a Test century against India.
And the nervous anticipation that had seen near silence grip The Oval, nobody daring to take their eyes away from the middle for a moment, gave way to pure elation when Cook, on 96, leaned back to cut a single off Hanuma Vihari only for Jasprit Bumrah to throw wildly past the stumps for four overthrows.
Think back eight years and a similar throw at this very same ground for overthrows gave Cook the century against Pakistan that was widely perceived to have saved his Test career. Now another one gave him the most perfect send-off.
It also brought the house down. So much so that, eventually, an embarrassed Cook had to gesture as if to say he could raise his bat no longer, simply to bring one of the warmest and most prolonged ovations you will ever see to an end.
‘Sometimes dreams come true,’ he said afterwards, describing his experience at The Oval, where he has received 15 standing ovations since the start of the game, as ‘the most surreal four days of my life’.
Of his fairy-tale final Test century, he added: ‘I remember cutting it to get to 97, and thinking three more to go. Just as he let it go, I thought he’s launched that pretty hard. Then I saw Ravi (Jadeja) wasn’t anyway near it. I thought it was four straight away.
‘It was very emotional. There was definitely a lump in my throat. I had about 30 friends and family here, so you couldn’t have scripted it. It’s one of those days where you will look back and forever go: “Wow!”
‘From a selfish point of view, I couldn’t have asked for a better week for me. There have been bigger things in more important games. But in one way, people said the pressure would be off.
‘In another way, each reception I’ve got has increased the pressure not to get nought or get out early every morning. It’s a nice way to go.’
In the stands was Cook’s wife Alice, who spent the due date for the arrival of their third child at The Oval with the rest of his family so she would not miss one of the most special moments of his distinguished career.
How apt it was, too, that with him in a stand of 259 that put this final Test out of India’s grasp was Root, who is only now really stamping his authority on the team he took over from Cook a year ahead of england’s schedule.
If anything, Root’s celebration was more animated than Cook’s because the captain, whose habit of not converting 50s to centuries has given way to too many failures, needed this on his return to his favoured No 4 position.
The pair fell in successive balls from Vihari before england swung merrily until Root called them in and let loose Cook’s great friend Anderson, who had flown with him from an A tour in West Indies to Nagpur at the start of his incredible journey all those years ago.
Shikhar Dhawan and Cheteshwar Pujara were trapped within three balls of each other but Anderson still could not get his great foe Kohli out in this series as he fell instead in the next over to Broad. Cue more Oval pandemonium.
Anderson was forced to wait, hopefully only until today, for his big moment as Kl Rahul and Ajinkya Rahane somehow held on to take India to 58 for three by the close of a tumultuous day.
There was a ninth standing ovation of the day and the 15th in all during this match for Cook as he left with his Barmy Army signature tune — KC and the Sunshine Band’s Give it Up — ringing around The Oval.
It doesn’t get any better than this. Until, that is, Anderson breaks McGrath’s record and england wrap up a 4-1 win that would mean more to the ultimate team man in Cook than even his own century.
Then he will go off to welcome his new baby a truly fulfilled cricketer.