Alastair Cook’s form with the bat makes a remarkable Comeback
A much awaited innings of 111 runs has finally come from England’s struggling opener Alastair Cook in the second innings of England’s third warm-up match against South Australia at Adelaide.
Cook had been struggling in the opening warm-up matches in Australia and while the rest of the English batsmen managed to play some impressive innings, Cook was the only one who had not played a decent innings.
Cook tentatively started his innings due to lack of confidence, as he wanted to spend more time on the wicket in order to get his confidence back. On the contrary, his opening partner, captain, Andrew Strauss had no problems with
his confidence and displayed a more attacking intent by blazing to 102 runs in quick succession.
A century from both the openers is an encouraging sign for the English team as now all the batsmen have had a good knock with the bat in their warm-up matches. Even though the match ended in a draw, it still served its purpose
by giving the batsmen enough practice.
Both Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss, shared a 181-runs opening stand that put the English side in a dominating position on the final day of the match.
After scoring 240 runs for the loss of just one wicket, the English skipper decided to declare the innings just before lunch, giving the hosts a target of 380 runs to chase for victory. However, the match ended in a draw due to
rain in the second session. This seemed to be the only downside of the day.
The English pacer James Anderson made the best use of the time the rain gave him by taking two wickets for twenty-three runs. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Daniel-Harris-c1310 (18) were batting when bad light ended the day’s
play.
England started the day at 94 for 0, aiming to score quick runs and then bowling the opposition out to take the match. Initially, aggression was shown by the English skipper who punished every loose ball by the South Australian
bowlers. Andrew Strauss was bowled out by the slow left arm orthodox bowler Aaron O’Brien. After the skipper, it was Jonathan Trott, who accompanied Alastair Cook. Trott was unbeaten on 20 when Andrew Strauss declared the innings.
On the last day of the match, England’s middle order batsmen did not get a chance to bat and all the in-form batsmen including Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood just watched their openers pile up runs.
Cook’s fine innings has come at just the right time as there is only one warm-up game left for England before the first Test of the Ashes on the 25th of November. England coach Andy Flower must be a very relieved man,
as he has been a staunch supporter of Alastair Cook. The coach was a bit worried about Cook’s lack of form but was adamant on giving him more chances in the warm-up games, to get his form back.
Andy Flower had said that he would like to see Cook score a 50 or a 100 before the first Test and this is exactly what Cook has done to make his coach proud. Now that Cook has finally scored an unbeaten knock of 111 runs, England
can finally take a sigh of relief as they were beginning to get worried about Cook’s poor show with the bat.
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