5 of the best Alastair Cook marathon knocks in Tests

Alastair Cook will retire from international cricket after the fifth Test at Oval against India.

Alastair Cook, former England captain, announced his retirement from international cricket on September 3, 2018. The final Test between England and India in the ongoing Pataudi Trophy, at the Kia Oval, will be his 161^st and final Test match.

This Test match will also be his 159^th consecutive outing in Test cricket for England, a world record and Cook will retire as the most capped England Test player and as their highest Test and international run-getter.

Known for his tremendous appetite for long innings and big scores, Alastair Nathan Cook made his Test debut against India in 2006 at Nagpur and promptly stamped his authority with a debut century. From then on, Cook became a mainstay of the England line-up for more than a decade to come. He has 12,254 runs in 160 Tests with 32 centuries and 56 fifties at an average of 44.88 and has taken 173 catches for England.

Cook was the first England captain to win a Test series in both India and South Africa.

Given that he played innings that were long and sometimes match saving for England, Team COC decided to pay tribute to perhaps the greatest England Test batsman of the modern era, by picking his 5 best marathon innings in Tests.

Check out the 5 of the best Alastair Cook marathon knocks in Tests

190 vs. India, Kolkata, 2012
492 mins

England’s tour to India in 2012 was a game changer for Alastair Cook who had recently taken over the reins of captaincy from Andrew Strauss. England was looking for their first away series win in India after 27 years and had only drawn level in the series after winning the second Test in Mumbai.

The third Test was played at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata and India batted first to score 316 runs in the first innings with Sachin Tendulkar scoring 76. Monty Panesar picked 4 wickets and Anderson returned with three.

England knew that to put the Indian team under pressure, they had to put up a huge total and Cook got to work by sweeping, cutting and stepping out to hit sixes to the Indian spinners Ashwin and Ojha. Cook batted for 492 mins and 377 balls to score a masterful 190 runs. With support from Trott (87) and fifties from Compton and Pietersen, England piled up 523 all out.

England bowlers came to the party in the Indian second innings, bowling them out for 247.

Thanks to a masterful knock by captain Cook, which was his fifth century in his first five matches as England captain, England went 2-1 up in the series with one match to go.

235* vs. Australia, Brisbane, 2010
625 mins

Alastair Cook’s best batting display came in the 2010 Ashes series down under. His best innings came at the Brisbane Test, when England was bowled out for 260 in the first innings, batting first. Australia piled up 481 runs thanks to 195 from Mike Hussey and 136 from Brad Haddin.

England needed someone to stand up to a charged up Mitchell Johnson and Cook took up the mantle on himself and batted for a painstaking 625 minutes or over 10 hours, putting on 188 with Andrew Strauss and an unbroken 329 with Jonathan Trott.

England began their second innings 221 behind at the Gabbatoir and Cook’s masterful 235* in 428 balls with 15 fours deflated the Australian bowling lineup and England put up an unbelievable looking total of 517/1. Cook went on to win the Man of the series award in the Ashes 2010 and was picked as one of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Year.

244* vs. Australia, Melbourne, 2017
634 mins

Perhaps Alastair Cook’s last great innings for England came in the 2017 Ashes down under at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne.

Australia was already 3-0 up, coming into Melbourne and England had to play for pride. Australia batted first to put up 327 on board thanks to Warner’s 103. England had to reply in kind and they did with a score of 491 runs.

Alastair Cook batted for over 10 hours and 409 balls to score 244* and carried his bat through the innings. Despite batting on a belter of a pitch, none of the other English batsmen crossed Joe Root’s 61 and Cook withstood a trying spell of bowling from Hazelwood, Bird, Lyon, and Cummins.

This 10 plus hour marathon 244* was Cook’s last Test hundred till the present moment, as he passed 50 just once since then and probably led to Cook deciding to call it quits.

294 vs. India, Birmingham, 2011
773 mins

India had a torrid tour to England in 2011 despite coming into the series as the no.1 ranked Test team. The Indian team lost the four-match series 4-0 and one of the biggest reasons that India lost apart from the failure of their batsmen, was Alastair Cook and his captaincy.

Cook had a fairly lean series with the bat scoring 348 runs in 4 matches, but he saved his best for just one game at Birmingham. He scored a marathon 294 runs in 773 minutes or just close to 13 hours. He whipped India’s seamers through midwicket and glide them behind square on the offside effortlessly.

England scored 710/7d and Cook’s marathon innings came in 545 balls and he had hit 33 fours in his innings. This win took England to the pinnacle of Test rankings for the first and only time till date, toppling India in the process.

263 vs. Pakistan, Abu Dhabi, 2015
836 mins

Pakistan’s adopted home of Dubai saw Alastair Cook master the Pakistani spinners in style on a turning pitch.

Pakistan had batted first to put on 523/8d thanks to Shoaib Malik’s 245 and Asad Shafiq’s 107. England needed a solid effort from its batsmen and especially captain Cook to put up a fight against the Pakistani bowlers.

Cook came to the party and played a knock that would make the best of the best batsmen go weak. Cook scored 263 in 528 balls in mind-numbing 836 minutes or just about 14 hours. England took their own pretty time to conjure up 598/9d and Cook led the way as he was the seventh wicket to fall in the 191^st over of their innings.

This marathon knock from Alastair Cook showed the caliber of his abilities and the way he negotiated Pakistani pacers and spinners was a master class in Test match batting.