ROOT ROARING ON
Joe in sight of century after Cook lets chance go begging
ALASTAIR COOK will never have a better chance of scoring the century that eludes him but, on another day of English domination, the captain again fell short of the landmark that would complete his recovery from the darkest days of his career.
When India shelled two dollies to reprieve Cook on the second day of the final Test, it seemed certain the cricketing gods had decided the Kia Oval was a worthy stage for him to finally silence any remaining doubts about his form.
He had, after all, received a huge let-off on the first evening when umpire Paul Reiffel decided that what looked a plumb lbw shout from Bhuvneshwar Kumar had pitched outside Cook’s leg stump. It had not.
Then, after Murali Vijay and Ajinkya Rahane yesterday dropped two of the easiest slip catches you will see when Cook was on 65 and 70, India were looking like an absolute rabble and the England captain was enjoying a charmed life.
Oddly, Cook became less fluent the longer his innings went on and, by the time he pushed tentatively outside off stump and was caught off the hardest of the three chances he offered, he was again looking vulnerable.
Cook’s failure to cash in when everything was going for him means the wait for his 26th Test century now extends to 31 knocks.
With England not playing another Test until April, and with India’s frailties meaning Cook will probably not get another chance here, that long gap since he took New Zealand for 130 at Headingley last May will extend to nearly two years.
The way England have turned this Investec series around means the pressure has lifted on Cook but the perfectionist inside him would have wanted the icing on the cake that a century here would have represented.
Such has been England’s continuing mastery of a deflated India that it will represent only a minor irritant as long as they go on to complete their third successive victory after a run of 10 Tests without a win.
That triumph could come as early as today if India bat as badly as they have done in Southampton, Old Trafford and now here. But if it does, MS Dhoni cannot blame an attack that stuck to its task yesterday.
When Cook and Gary Ballance had taken England to 191 for one after the early loss of Sam Robson, and with India’s catching in disarray, the wheels of Dhoni’s tour bus were close to falling off completely.
Yet Vijay’s sharp pouching of Cook off Varun Aaron gave India an opening to at least reclaim bit of self-respect, which they did by taking another three wickets while only 38 more runs were added.
Ballance had looked certain to continue his Bradmanesque introduction to Test cricket by scoring a fourth hundred in only his eighth Test until he jabbed Ravi Ashwin to silly mid-off.
Then, when Ian Bell edged a beauty from Ishant Sharma behind and Moeen Ali found another sloppy way of getting out, this time deflecting an attempted leave into his stumps, England were under the slightest semblance of pressure.
Yet any hopes India had of keeping the hosts’ lead down were quickly snatched away from them by another classy contribution from the young player at the forefront of England’s new era.
The emergence of Ballance, Moeen, Jos Buttler and Chris Jordan has been notable but it is Joe Root who is developing into the flag carrier for all they hope to achieve.
Ever since England moved Root to five in the order this year he has left his Australian problems behind him, looking much more assertive after beginning the Test summer with a double hundred against Sri Lanka.
Here he again impressed in tandem with Buttler, the pair reasserting England’s advantage with a stand of 80, and then when he opened his shoulders in extending England’s lead to a commanding 237 in company with Jordan.
By the close Root had added 67 off 62 balls with Jordan and stands just eight short of his fifth Test century. He has now scored at least a half century in every Test this series and has established himself as the heir apparent to Cook when the England captain decides to call it a day.
Thanks to the total transformation in this series, that day will not come for a while and England look certain to win 3-1, something that looked barely believable when they were bounced out by Ishant at Lord’s.