The Ashes: Alastair Cook lets captain do the entertaining as he piles on runs

Published on Tuesday 4 January 2011 18:33

Alastair Cook continues to prove what his England team-mates have long known about him - that he is an immensely talented Test batsman.

Cook took his series average to 127.6, in an unbeaten 61 out of 167 for three on day two of the final Test in Sydney. He has also passed Michael Vaughan's tally of 633 two tours ago, to become England's sixth-heaviest runscorer in an Ashes series. To top it off he overtook David Gower to become the youngest Englishman to pass 5,000 runs at 26 years and 10 days, and the second youngest ever to pass the milestone, behind Sachin Tendulkar who achieved it aged 25 years and 155 days.

Cook allowed his opening partner Andrew Strauss (60) to provide most of the crowd-pleasing as England responded to Australia's 280 all out with a first-wicket stand of 98.

But it was he who was still there at the close, albeit with one significant slice of fortune along the way. Cook mistimed an attempted big hit on 46 high to mid-on, only to be called back by umpire Billy Bowden once a belated suspicion that the 'dismissal' had come from a Michael Beer no-ball was confirmed by video replay.

The situation at stumps nonetheless demonstrated exactly why England value Cook so highly - and James Anderson, who closed out the evening session alongside him as nightwatchman, even ventured that the left-handed opener is more talented than the mercurial Kevin Pietersen. Anderson's thesis did not quite hang together, in the form of words he chose to explain it. But mental strength is every bit as important as range of stroke at any level of cricket, and it was easy to work out what the England fast bowler meant.

"He's got 600, 650 runs in the series - so it's pretty obvious he's talented," Anderson said of Cook. "He's probably more talented than a KP. He's so naturally gifted with the shots he's got - and Cookie's not got that. He relies on the shots that he has got, and his mental toughness to get him through. He's shown how talented he is."

Cook arrived on his second tour of Australia admitting himself that he had under-achieved against these opponents compared with his overall career returns. He could hardly have dreamed how completely he was about to redress the balance.

"He's been fantastic," Anderson added. "Considering people were questioning his spot during the summer, I think he's shown exactly what a player he is.He's got huge character, huge talent - and there were no doubts in our dressing room that he was going to perform when he came out here."

Cook's no-ball reprieve was the second time in successive matches England have profited from a previously unprecedented curiosity - Matt Prior having survived on five in Melbourne, on his way to 85, courtesy that time of Aleem Dar and a Mitchell Johnson overstep. After the latest incident, which denied debutant left-arm spinner Beer a maiden Test wicket, Anderson said: "I think it's good cricket, because the correct decision comes out at the end of the day. I think they should do it more often. I don't think they use it enough.

"A no-ball is a no-ball, and you should get the correct decision when he's bowled one."

England needed all of Cook's determination, and Strauss' flair, to wrest back the momentum after even Anderson (four for 66) was unable to stop Johnson (53) and Ben Hilfenhaus in a counter-attacking ninth-wicket stand of 76 which breathed new life into Australia's first innings.

"It is frustrating when that happens but it does happen quite often in Test cricket, the tail wagging," said Anderson.

"It can be difficult, because certainly Johnson and Hilfenhaus had a licence and free rein to swing the bat. Sometimes it comes off - and it did for Hilfenhaus, who had his eyes shut for the majority of his innings. But, if you'd given us 280 when they chose to bat on that pitch, we'd have taken it.

"The momentum had swung towards Australia, so Cookie and Straussy took it back for us."

Anderson finished Australia's innings with 21 wickets in the series. Like Cook, he therefore has very good reason for satisfaction at having defied detractors who insisted he could not swing the Kookaburra ball and cited his miserable five wickets at an average of more than 80 on his last trip down under. "I knew what had been said but it didn't bother me," he said. "I knew where my game was at and the ability I've got."

England, needing to avoid defeat to become the first tourists to win an Ashes series down under in 24 years, might have slept more easily had Pietersen's bravado not contributed to his late downfall -hooking Johnson into the hands of Beer at deep backward square, Johnson adding that big wicket to Jonathan Trott's, bowled off an inside edge for a duck.