Captain Cook sails into the record books
Opener’s heroics help England gain firm footing against India.
It was clearly England captain Alastair Cook’s day in Kolkatta as he broke records and remained unbeaten on 136 on the second day of the third Test against India.
England, chasing India’s first-innings total of 316, went to stumps just 100 runs behind with nine wickets left. Cook achieved the first milestone of the day when he reached 89 and became the youngest batsman to score 7,000 Test runs, knocking Sachin Tendulkar off the top spot. The Indian batting legend was 28 when he made the record. Cook then proceeded to score his 23rd Test century, the highest in England’s history. The previous record, 22, was held by Wally Hammond, Colin Cowdrey, Geoffrey Boycott and Kevin Pietersen.
The left handed opener has now made centuries in all five of his Tests as captain.
Earlier, India skipper MS Dhoni managed to score a half-century before becoming the last man out to bring the hosts’ batting to a quick end after Monty Panesar got rid of Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 7th, 2012.
England, chasing India’s first-innings total of 316, went to stumps just 100 runs behind with nine wickets left. Cook achieved the first milestone of the day when he reached 89 and became the youngest batsman to score 7,000 Test runs, knocking Sachin Tendulkar off the top spot. The Indian batting legend was 28 when he made the record. Cook then proceeded to score his 23rd Test century, the highest in England’s history. The previous record, 22, was held by Wally Hammond, Colin Cowdrey, Geoffrey Boycott and Kevin Pietersen.
The left handed opener has now made centuries in all five of his Tests as captain.
Earlier, India skipper MS Dhoni managed to score a half-century before becoming the last man out to bring the hosts’ batting to a quick end after Monty Panesar got rid of Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 7th, 2012.