Cricket:Alastair Cook fell six runs short of his triple-hundred in England's 710 for seven declared against India at Edgbaston. The England opener defied a weary attack in a career-best 294 until he finally fell an hour before stumps on day three of this third test.
By then, Cook had faced 545 balls over more than 12-and-a-half hours before departing in anti-climax to a slash to deep point off Ishant Sharma. He therefore failed to join an elite group of just five English batsmen to have made 300 or more in tests, but had batted throughout an innings which resulted in the third-highest total in his country’s history.
Cook began this morning on 182 and, showing no apparent urgency to set up a declaration with so much time still left in this match, helped England plough well past the highest score at this venue — on the way to an eventual lead of 486. His fourth-wicket stand with Eoin Morgan (104) realised 222, and did not falter even when England’s unhurried progress was rudely interrupted by a combination of bad light and a mid-afternoon power cut.
Cook was still two runs short of his previous-best 235 not out when umpires Simon Taufel and Steve Davis surprisingly took the players off, to the evident bemusement of a sell-out crowd.
Floodlights are in use for this series, but were inoperable when needed as heavy clouds rolled over Birmingham and the tourists prepared to recall fast bowler Sharma to their attack. After an unscheduled and bizarre 15-minute break, the umpires brought the players back out — despite no discernible improvement in either the light, or the floodlights.
It took almost another hour for the bulbs to fire up properly again. But there was barely a flicker of any malfunction from the inexhaustible Cook, who remained utterly constant as England’s sheet anchor. It took him until the 45th over to register his second boundary of the day, a square-drive off Amit Mishra.
Morgan was playing a slightly more adventurous game but still needed 187 balls to record his second Test century as England took no chances in awkward batting conditions under constant cloud cover.
By contrast, after Morgan had slapped a catch to cover from Suresh Raina’s off-spin, Ravi Bopara back-cut Mishra for a four from only the fifth ball he faced to bring up England’s 600. Sadly for Bopara, given a chance here in the temporary absence of the injured Jonathan Trott, he was to fall for only seven when he missed a Mishra leg-break and went lbw on the forward-defence.
Matt Prior was the next candidate to play a more attacking game around Cook. But he too fell cheaply to Mishra, mis-sweeping to be well-held by a tumbling Sachin Tendulkar at long-leg, the third England wicket for the addition of only 17 runs.
It was all, however, mere damage limitation for India — about to lose their test number one ranking to England unless they can somehow avoid defeat over the next two days.
Cook became responsible for the second-longest individual England innings in history, behind only Len Hutton during his all-time national record 364 against Australia at The Oval in 1938. Back in the present, it is a measure of the hosts’ superiority so far this summer that they now have eight century stands in the book — to India’s one.