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.