England vs Pakistan at The Oval – day three lunchtime report
Alastair Cook has spearheaded the England fight back on day three of the third Test at the Oval to restore his team’s lead in the match, which is now 35 runs.
His half-century, wasn’t the prettiest, and he rode his luck at times, but you can guarantee that he won’t have scored a more important one than this throughout his Test career.
There had been much talk of Cook’s future in the side following his poor showings so far this summer, but after surviving what was a nervous start he looks on course for big score as his finished the session 76 not out.
Mohammed Asif was the first man to trouble Cook, his good-length delivery outside off stump tempted the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Essex-c783 man into a poor drive which luckily fell short of the slip cordon. The troubled batsmen had obviously found a few lucky pennies on his way to the crease this morning as he once again prodded at a wide delivery from Asif but his edge trickled past the slips and to the boundary.
Night-watchman Jimmy Anderson gave a solid resistance but was finally dismissed for 12 as the introduction of spinner Saeed Ajmal broke the deadlock. The on-looking Graeme Swann would have been l*****g his lips as Ajmal sharply turned one out of the rough which Anderson followed and edged behind to Kamran Akmal.
Cook was in the thick of the action for much of the morning as he showed some exquisite touches through the leg side, where he hit some nice boundaries, but continued to look nervous at anything that moved around off stump. He had the slip fielders to thank in the 13th over, as http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 kept up their questionable fielding exploits this series by letting another wild edge from Cook through for four.
But as the morning moved on, Cook grew in stature and in confidence. He progressed to his 50 pretty comfortably in the end as he started to caress the ball to all corners of the ground, racking up 12 boundaries on his way to a succesfull session. Jonathan Trott (15 not out) stood tall with Cook at the end of the session, as the third-wicket partnership reached 70 at lunch.
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