On the occasion of Alastair Cook passing 10000 Test runs.

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Re: On the occasion of Alastair Cook passing 10000 Test runs

Postby braveneutral » Wed Jun 22, 2016 9:51 pm

He two year drought which showed his mettle during times of adversity?
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I suppose.

At times.

Re: On the occasion of Alastair Cook passing 10000 Test runs

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Wed Jun 22, 2016 10:00 pm

It did cross my mind to reply something along those lines (dead sheep)! But there's no point me doing a Cook list and turning it into a slagfest. My last entry did introduce a slightly negative nuance, towards the end, and I will develop that a little. I'm sure other posters think that I have an unfairly critical view of Cook, which I don't think I have (he wouldn't, you say). But some truths should be acknowledged.
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Re: On the occasion of Alastair Cook passing 10000 Test runs

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Wed Jun 22, 2016 10:02 pm

braveneutral wrote:He two year drought which showed his mettle during times of adversity?


A bid to ghost his autobiography?
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Re: On the occasion of Alastair Cook passing 10000 Test runs

Postby braveneutral » Wed Jun 22, 2016 10:56 pm

Hear hear!
Asia Cup 2012 guru
SA vs Oz 2011 combined guru
SA vs Bangladesh Tests guru
NZ vs WI Tests guru
2014 French Open guru
T20 Blast 2014 guru
India vs WI ODIs 2014 guru
2016 French Open guru
2016 Wimbledon guru
2016 RL50 Cup guru
Premier League Final Placings Prediction League 2016/7 guru
England v SA ODIs 2017 guru
Guru.

D/L wrote:Words fail me for once.


17/04/17 - 'The day that history was made'

20/04/17 - Better than Bolt.
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braveneutral
 
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I suppose.

At times.

Re: On the occasion of Alastair Cook passing 10000 Test runs

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Sat Jun 25, 2016 6:23 pm

6. 82 at the MCG, 2010.

The four innings I've picked so far haven't incorporated a home game or a win. This is another from Alastair Cook's travels, but it is from the first victory in the list. Cook's innings on this winning Ashes tour (and generally) tended to be baggy Victorian novels rather than racy novellas, and often his best were rather worthy, careworn affairs, and a triumph of will over method. This knock was the nearest Cook will ever get to nonchalant glamour, and one of he and Andrew Strauss' most joyous partnerships.

After leading the series at Adelaide, England were beaten badly at Perth, and the series was all square going to Melbourne, the great venue of Australian cricket, with the attendance at near capacity. It proved to be one of the happiest days in the history of the England cricket team. http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/428752.html Australia were pretty much beaten in a day at the MCG, and the Ashes were retained. Chris Tremlett, James Anderson and Tim Bresnan bowled superbly to dismiss Australia for 98 in 42 overs after being put in by Strauss. At the close of the first day, the old pairing of Cook and the captain had wiped out the deficit, and dashed undefeated to 157 off 47 overs off the tormenters of Perth and future Ashes contests, Mitch Johnson and Ryan Harris. Cook was 80 not out overnight, dominating the stand with six square cuts to the boundary.

It was truly one of the best days to be an England supporter. There were no shades to the delight evident in the exultation of the openers walking from the sunlit arena in front of stands they'd largely emptied of home supporters. Cook went early the next morning, but he has rarely made batting look as natural to him as he did in this innings.
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Re: On the occasion of Alastair Cook passing 10000 Test runs

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Tue Jul 05, 2016 11:35 am

9. 235* at the 'Gabba, 2010.

In 2009-10, Alastair Cook endured the first major drought of his career, from the start of the 2009 Ashes in England, up until the home Pakistan series the following year. Runs made in Bangladesh kept his stats buoyant, otherwise he was averaging 27 against top eight sides in that period, with a single ton in Durban. But more troubling was the fretful time he and his opening partner Andrew Strauss endured against Mohammads Amir and Asif in helpful bowling conditions. Cook relieved the pressure with an uneasy ton at the Oval, but he went into the winter Ashes as a more fallible opening bat than had previously been supposed.

And then England had one of its most celebrated overseas tours, and Cook's defining series; the one he will always be spontaneously remembered for. This epic innings in Brisbane http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/428749.html to draw the opening Test perhaps more than any other epitomised the image we have of Cook at his work: industrious, painstaking, sombre, dutiful. England were 221 behind on first innings after tea on the third day. England's dreams appeared destined to come to nothing as so often they did in the first Test in Brisbane.

But Cook batted for ten and a half hours, England drew the match with only one wicket down, and even had a little bowl at the end. Clearly this wasn't going to be like other times. It was Cook's first Test double century. It might be noted that this was a very flat track by the end of the game, and Australia fed Cook's strengths throughout, but the state of the match meant the pressure was significant. England had gone to the Gabbatior, but survived. And thrived. With 766 runs and three big tons in the series Cook embarked on a period of two years where he would be England's supreme bat, and the best opener in the game.
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Re: On the occasion of Alastair Cook passing 10000 Test runs

Postby GarlicJam » Tue Jul 05, 2016 10:05 pm

Interesting thread, AC. If not just for the discussion on dead sheep and the crazy numbering system you have got going on.

Number 9 (5?) was one that I was awaiting as I read down the list. It is the one that first came to mind when I saw the thread intent. As you say, it epitomises our (epsecially Australians', I'd say) view of Cook at the crease.

I would guess that Cook, in his dotage, will not mind that he is best remembered for innings of patience, application, graft and technique, over style and flair. Even though he has had those moments on occasion. Australians will best remember him for that tour down under in 2010, where he was virtually immoveable, he was at the peak of his powers, and was aided by some indifferent Aus form and captaincy - but each one fed the other.
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Re: On the occasion of Alastair Cook passing 10000 Test runs

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Tue Jul 05, 2016 10:15 pm

That last one was 5! No idea why I numbered it 9, none at all... Apart from night shifts send me crazy. I mean, they really do.
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Re: On the occasion of Alastair Cook passing 10000 Test runs

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Tue Jul 05, 2016 10:19 pm

As I've said before, Cook had an invincibility cloak in thar series. Caught off no balls, caught on the bounce, dropped. He walked half off on a couple of occasions, to be called back. Ponting lost it again in frustration. But he made Australia pay a heavy price. And they did bowl badly at him. He's not made too many since though.
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Re: On the occasion of Alastair Cook passing 10000 Test runs

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Thu Jul 07, 2016 5:17 pm

4. 176 at Sardar Patel Stadium, 2012.

The previous time England had played India it had been the best of times; they had concluded the series toting the ICC mace around the Oval following a 4-0 rout. And if this nine wicket defeat in Ahmedabad http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/565806.html wasn't quite the worst of times, the team had lost their aura of conviction and preeminence in the intervening 14 months. This was not only because of the losses to Pakistan and South Africa, but the retirement of Andrew Strauss as captain and the divisions in the team which became exposed in the reaction to Kevin Pietersen's texts to South African players. And the team had become defensive and fearful, as evidenced here where England picked Samit Patel ahead of Monty Panesar, rubber stamped the selection of an injured Stuart Broad and a burned out Tim Bresnan, and dismissed the possibility of moving Matt Prior up from his familiar perch at seven.

But from the Oval to Ahmedabad, it was very much a tale of two pitches. The low, low bounce in Gujarat was an anathema to the England pace bowlers, who were outbowled by Zaheer Khan and Umesh Yadav. Slow left armer Pragyan Ojha, with nine wickets, was India's match winner. Yet with so much of the tide turning against England, for so long, Cook provided significant resistance in the second innings, without which it is difficult to imagine England ultimately winning the series. His 176 was another of his ten hour marathons, and the 159 he added with Matt Prior was the friction that gave England some purchase on the contest. Responding to a 330 first innings deficit, the fall of Cook's wicket at 365-7 at least saw England 35 beyond the innings defeat.

The conditions that have felt so alien to generations of England tourists to India, again proved favourable to Cook, and the lack of swing allowed his lustre against spin to bloom. As always he scored mainly to the on side, totalling only three runs down the ground. On his debut as England's new skipper, he was leading by example, and looking a plausible captain of the side through an outstanding performance on the field.
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Re: On the occasion of Alastair Cook passing 10000 Test runs

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Fri Jul 08, 2016 7:21 pm

3. 122 at the Wankhede Stadium, 2012.

There is a curiosity attached to the honour of the England captaincy that it proves so onerous, so enervating that it must ravage the dominion of any who wears the crown. Don't serve too young. Don't serve too long. But this sacrifice isn't associated with the captaincy of other countries. And Alastair Cook's mentors, Graham Gooch and Andy Flower both thrived as batters when leading their sides. While Cook's form has fluctuated over the years, he has averaged as many as captain as he has as a player. While at times his aptitude for directing the field has been exposed by the flaws of his coaches, in this series he was a leader justified by his prodigious haul of runs.

His 122 in the first innings in Mumbai http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/565807.html is often neglected in the unforgettable, captivating fury of Kevin Pietersen's 186, even to the extent that Pietersen has overshadowed Cook's contribution across the whole series. Which is crazy. In fact, it can seem that in Mumbai, in contrast to the sturm und drang of the last of Pietersen's trilogy of late career classics, Cook's qualities as a batter are revealed more sharply than ever: the obstinacy, the risk management, the willingness to put runs ahead of any other consideration. They added 206 runs together in a partnership that has acquired a little tragic poignancy in the light of future events.

M.S. Dhoni responded to his huge win in Ahmedabad by demanding a pitch that turned from the first ball, and backed up the advantage by winning the toss. India opened their bowling with both spinners on a pitch where the home side would later be skittled by Monty Panesar and Graham Swann in their second innings. It was one of England's least likely wins and the centrepiece of three innings by Cook which would prove to be his peak as a run scorer and secure one of England's greatest overseas triumphs.
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Re: On the occasion of Alastair Cook passing 10000 Test runs

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Mon Jul 11, 2016 9:33 pm

2. 190 at Eden Gardens, 2012.

In the days leading up to the third Test http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/565808.html MS Dhoni was involved in an entertaining feud with the head groundsman at Eden Gardens for not producing his desired spinning pitch. Kolkata was a much better batting track than at Mumbai, and the England seamers got into the series at last. Alastair Cook played a different kind of innings here, driving down the ground, even hitting a pair of sixes. The ball turned much less and Cook played the ball all around the wicket. It was perhaps near his peak as a technical batter, and the only one in these ten knocks where his most productive shot wasn't through midwicket and square leg (the cover drive, courtesy of cricinfo).

The third of Cook's three centuries on the 2012 tour saw England to a 2-1 lead which they were not to relinquish on a featherbed at Nagpur. Having batted England to winning totals twice, at Kolkota, in doing it once more, he became the fifth touring batter (after Weekes, Sobers, Barrington, Flower) to score three tons in consecutive Tests in India. This hundred took him past Cowdrey, Boycott, Hammond and Pietersen (he ended the series with exactly the same Test average as Pietersen, 49.42) to make him the leading century maker for his country. He backed it up across each of the first three Tests when his team mates were mostly inconsistent.

The press, though with some diffidence, hailed him as an England batting great. What was to follow was a trough lasting three years, where he lost the support of a large minority of England diehards. He went two years without a hundred to add to his record; three years when he only scored tons against West Indies and New Zealand. The characteristics so lauded in his batting, seemed to be causing him difficulty in every other respect. Alastair Cook, marketed with devotion by the ECB as England's Übermensch, looked fated to be destroyed by everything that made him strong.
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Re: On the occasion of Alastair Cook passing 10000 Test runs

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Fri Jul 29, 2016 9:30 pm

1. 245 at Sheikh Zayed Stadium, 2014.

Alastair Cook flew home in December 2012 having won in India in his first series as new England captain; perhaps the ultimate achievement for an England team. And then he plummeted swiftly to earth. He left Nagpur with a Test average of around fifty. Over the next two and a half years up to his second series in UAE against Pakistan, he averaged 38.4, going two years without a hundred. His career average had dropped to the mid forties, and runs when they came were mostly in low pressure situations; he struggled in the big Ashes series. His technique came and went suddenly and unpredictably, like sunshine on a hillside.

And his captaincy had lost the support of many. I switched on the Tests when Cook was out, in a futile imitation of military men turning their backs on a disgraced colleague. Tuning in as England's new best bat, Joe Root loped to the middle.

Sport is a young man's game. The athleticism and the miraculous reflexes of great players can seem to border on the heroic in a junior, like the emerging Joe Root. Cook arrived in Dubai 31 years old. Beyond a certain point, sport struggles for meaning. Is it useful for a thirty-plus man to spend his day in the nets, burning up quite so much of his energy and ingenuity to the end of hitting the ball in the middle of the bat, beyond the reach of the fielders?

And yet, that is the point at which careers can acquire a trace of human pathos. That a person who has done this so many times, can generate the heart and spirit to do it again, like Falstaff finding the ardour to carouse through another day. And this poignancy gave Cook's 263 in Abu Dhabi a context that his innings over the years seem to have struggled for. It weighted his time at the crease with a little gravity, which I've never felt in even his most epic endeavours.

Pakistan batted first and scored 523-8 http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/902635.html in the first Test of a series they were expected to win with ease. In reply, Cook batted for 14 hours in extreme heat, and saw England to a small lead, which they damn near turned into a most unlikely win. It was an innings in which Cook could have been out many times, but he kept going, hour after hour, session after session. He saw six much younger men come and go and he established England's tenure in the series at the first attempt. Most of his runs were acquired though square leg and midwicket... There were no sixes, and few fours. It was a statement of endurance. In my view, it is the only innings of his England career that will trouble those compiling the greatest innings of all time.
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