Alastair Cook on Cloud Nine
England’s left-handed opening batsman Alastair Cook is on cloud nine after regaining his form in the second warm-up match against South Australia the other day, by playing an unbeaten knock of 111 runs.
Cook had been struggling before the team landed in Australia, and his bad luck with the bat continued in the first warm-up match against Southern Australia, similarly he failed in the first innings of the match against West Australia. However, when things
were looking bad for the left-hander, he managed to pull off an unbeaten knock in the second innings.
All the English batsmen had scored decent runs in their opening warm-up match but Alastair Cook was the only player who remained unsuccessful.
While Cook was facing misery with the bat, his opening partner and Captain Andrew Strauss was scoring runs with maximum ease. This was putting more pressure on Cook to come up with some impressive knocks with the bat.
Cook was being considered England’s Achilles’ heel in the upcoming Ashes. But England’s head coach Andy Flower had full confidence in his opener and was insistent in giving him more chances to find his lost form before the first Test match at the Gabba,
Brisbane against Australia.
But when Alastair failed to deliver in the first innings of the second match against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Australia-c844, there were some serious talks of dropping Cook in the first Test. However, Alastair found the best way to hush his critics by giving an unbeaten performance
with the bat.
Talking about his knock Cook said that it was a great experience for him to spend a long time in the middle, something that helped him in gaining his tempo in batting. Alastair managed to spend time on the field in his first innings by facing 91 deliveries;
however, he only managed to score 32 runs, which showed that he wasn’t middling the ball well enough to score runs.
Alastair Cook was visibly happy after the return of his form and believes that it was possible only due to the time he spent on the pitch in the first innings against South Australia. Cook said, “It is all right in the nets, for picking the ball up. But
trying to find the gaps in the middle is different, and that first innings was really important for me to find my feet. The runs look after themselves then.”
Alastair Cook had nothing but praises for his opening partner Andrew Strauss who has been in great form for over a year. The captain scored two centuries in the two opening warm-up matches. Cook clearly feels that Strauss is in his best form and if nothing
goes wrong Strauss is going to be a force to reckon with, when the English meet the Australians in Brisbane on the 25th of November. Cook said, “He’s looking in great nick, and all the guys really are playing well. As a squad, things have gone really
well. Every batter has spent some time in the middle, and the bowlers have bowled well.”
England will now be facing Australia A, and Cook feels that England’s main test of wits will be against the A side. Triumphs over West and South Australia won’t mean anything if England don’t manage to pull off a comfortable win against Australia A. England
has sent its main strike bowlers to Brisbane to prepare for the first test, that means that England will be facing Australia A without their ace bowlers. Cook is confident that Andrew Strauss and Paul Collingwood will give the same flamboyant performance in
the last warm-up match.
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