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England batsman Alistair Cook celebrates reaching 200 runs on day five of the first Ashes test. AAP Image/Dave Hun
Considering the guy has batted his way into modern Ashes history, in terms of performances by an Englishman, it’s almost a travesty that the Barmy Army has used only one song for Alastair Cook this summer.
Remember KC and the Sunshine Band’s “Give It Up”? All we’ve heard from the Army this summer is:
Na na na na na na na na na
Ali Ali Cook, Ali Cook, Ali Ali Cook
That’s it. Two lines. Repeated more than a few times.
Alistair Cook has been the premier batsman of this Ashes series, and by a good margin in reality. Removed by Shane Watson just after Tea for 189, he now sits on 766 runs for the series at the phenomenal average of 127.66.
Cook is more than two hundred in front of the best Australian aggregate, Mike Hussey’s 558, and he’s three hundred and plenty ahead of the next best Englishman, Jonathon Trott on 445. In terms of average though, no-one is close. Trott and Hussey are in different postcodes.
That there’s no obvious correlation between Cook scoring heavily this series and England’s wins has been surprising to find. However, one thing is sure; when Cook scores big, England score big.
His 235 not out in Brisbane was the foundation for the mammoth 1/517, in which captain Andrew Strauss’ 110 might now cruelly be classed as a failure.
In Adelaide – where England first won – by the time Cook was out for 149, England were over halfway to their match-winning 5d/620.
Here again in Sydney, Cook has again piled them on as England bat Australia out of this match.
At Stumps, England is 7/488. The lead is already 208 with two days still to play, and you can’t imagine them wanting to have to bat a second time in this Test. With no need to force a result, but plenty of time to allow it to happen organically, England will bat as long as Australia’s bowlers keep serving it up to them on the platter they used on Day 3.
For Cook, it seemed he was destined to bat himself into all sorts of record books in this innings. He had Walter Hammond’s England Ashes series record of 905 runs in the 1928/29 series well and truly in his sights, and aside from the odd ball from newbie Michael Beer, it was hard to see what or who would prevent him.
The ABC Radio commentators even went as far to suggest that a triple century might be on the cards, given that Day 3 saw the ground mostly bathed in sunlight and the pitch as flat as any point in the match.
Alas, and almost on cue, Cook nicked Shane Watson to a low diving Mike Hussey in the gully. It almost seemed a disappointment that he couldn’t register a well-deserved second double hundred for the series, and indeed, go on batting toward the horizon and the record books.
Instead, he’ll have to be content with what is, and not what might be.
Cook has become the second fastest player to 5000 Test runs, only bettered by some bloke named Tendulkar. Given Cook only just turned 26 on Christmas Day, he could well reach some dizzy heights by the time he’s done.
The England Test Runs record is now less than 4000 away for Cook (Graham Gooch made 8900 Test runs), and even if current team mates Andrew Strauss and Kevin Pietersen better Gooch’s mark, Cook has the time on his side to reel them in too.
Even falling short of Hammond’s Ashes record, Cook’s 2010/11 tally is still the best effort from an Englishman in my lifetime, easily accounting David Gower’s 1985 series total of 732, and Gooch’s 673 in 1993.
And if you delve further, it gets downright spooky.
His innings yesterday took him well beyond 2000 minutes in the middle, and past John Edridge’s mark for the longest period of time an Englishman has batted in an Ashes series. It’s funny though, it seems like he’s batted sooo much longer than that even.
For those to have topped five hundred runs in a series, only three others – Hammond, Sir Donald Bradman, and Stephen Waugh – average more than one hundred, as Cook is now. Only Cook and Bradman did it in seven innings.
That’s how good he’s been this series.
What has been noticeable this summer is how stable he is at the point of playing his shot. Cook still moves around the crease in his wind up, and even gives his bat a bit of flourish before commencing the downswing. From that point though, he is rock solid with his feet, and his head is dead still. I don’t have the time or facilities to look through the last five years of Cook’s career, but I’m sure it hasn’t always been this way.
Cook doesn’t put the turnaround down to anything in particularly though, funnily enough. When I queried this of him last night, the reserved lad from the farmlands of Essex almost apologetically put his success down to doing the same as he ever has, and a bit of luck:
“Obviously you work hard, and I think sometimes you get a bit lucky along the way. Little things have gone my way on this trip, and I’m very grateful for it. There’s not one thing which has changed; I mean, I haven’t changed anything drastically from where I was last summer to where I am now. That’s why form in sport is such a weird thing.”
If only it was that simple. Luck and weirdness…