Alastair Cook's brilliant double-century brings Ashes to life for England and gives them chance of winning fourth Test
Australia 327, England 491-9: England opener becomes the sixth highest run scorer in Test cricket after batting the entire day to put England in control at the MCG
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Your support makes all the difference.The seagulls were flocking as evening fell. And towards the northern end of the MCG, where the thousands of England fans had gathered, the beer and the songs were in full flow. First they serenaded Alastair Cook (“la-la-la-la-la, Ali Ali Cook...”), well past his double-century. Then they taunted Jackson Bird (“he bowls to the left, he bowls to the right…”), already well into three figures.
Most of all, though, they simply basked in the sheer, delirious pleasure of being there: three-nil down, yes, but finally, something worth seeing. Finally, something to write home about. Finally, something to cheer the folks back home: sleepily stirring in their beds, absentmindedly reaching for their phones to check the score, rubbing their eyes to make sure they had seen it right.
Yes, you did see it right. Yes, England really did batter Australia all over the park. Yes, Cook and Stuart Broad really did put on 100 in 18 overs in a weapons-grade, too-hot-for-TV ninth wicket partnership. Yes, Cook really did bat all day, finish 244 not out and pass Brian Lara in the all-time Test runs list. And at the end of a dreamily perfect day for England, they lead by 164, a position from which they should really win, and at the very least avert the 5-0 whitewash that has been on everyone’s lips since about day four at Brisbane.
You will hear certain people grousing, from certain sheltered quarters, that none of this really mattered, because the series is already over. This is a bit like saying there is no point reading Twelfth Night because Shakespeare is dead. Under no circumstances listen to them. Cricket is cricket, the Ashes is the Ashes, and international sport is international sport, and when it is played with this sort of skill and courage it leaves the sort of memories that will last long after the score is forgotten.
Besides, for many the difference between 4-0 and 3-1, between 5-0 and 3-2, is more than semantic. The purgative blood-letting that follows whitewashes has the potential to end eras, traumatise captains, reroute careers. The autopsy of this series will be tough and thorough, and rightly so. But I challenge you to walk into that England dressing room, full of sweat and satisfaction, and tell them today didn’t matter.
The irony is that until the game broke in the final session and England finally pulled clear, this remained a delicately poised Test match, with England’s small advantage balanced against Australia’s psychological edge. Even as Broad walked to the crease with eight wickets down, England led by just 46. That’s half an hour of David Warner. Surely Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins would blow out the England tail and be ahead by stumps.
But curiously, the expected lower-order collapse never came. Broad made a half-century of immense courage, braving the early hits, looking not merely to survive but to score. Cook, meanwhile, showed the same freedom and enterprise he had showed on day two, and simply batted and batted. Sure, the slow pitch played to his strengths, but this was still a masterpiece of concentration and judgement, of picking the right ball to leave, the right ball to defend, the right ball to hit.
It is a lesson his successor as captain is yet to learn. Joe Root threw his gloves down in anger as he walked off the field, having thrown away his overnight start by hooking Cummins straight to Nathan Lyon at deep square leg. On a day when he too could have batted all day, he added just 12 runs and lasted less than an hour.
Why did he do it? Root would probably say it was the right shot, wrong execution. But when you lack the power of most international batsmen, your timing on the hook needs to be absolutely perfect. Warner can miscue them for six. Root can’t, and so his margin for error is far smaller. The fact that he took the shot on anyway, despite the ease of alternative scoring options available, spoke volumes.
The second new ball did for Dawid Malan, LBW despite getting a thick inside edge that had somehow evaded his knowledge. Jonny Bairstow tried to cut Lyon and nicked off. Moeen Ali played an extraordinarily eclectic 20 off 14 balls, featuring a six off Lyon and then the inevitable catch at cover. It was the innings of a man who no longer trusts himself to survive, and is determined to go down swinging. Chris Woakes played well for his 26, even if he never quite looked comfortable. Tom Curran was despatched by Hazlewood for just four. And so, despite being second best for much of the game, Australia still had at least a foot in it.
Through all this, Cook was still batting, and Australia had long since run out of ideas to stop him. The records disintegrated before him like mirages: along the way he passed Mahela Jayawardene, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Lara in the all-time list. His 150 was his 11th for England, moving him top of the list. Lyon had nothing. Mitchell Marsh tried bowling at him with three short extra covers. Cook simply stood on his toes and punched the ball straight through them for four.
It was a classic Cook innings in so many ways. But one thing we have rarely seen him do is bat with the tail. This was only the second time he had batted with Broad, for example, and as he danced down the pitch and carted Lyon over his head for four to bring up the England 400, Lyon’s shocked expression was akin to that of a grown man who had just been slapped by his mother. The next over Bird overpitched, Cook drove straight, and there it was: a double-century to rate with any he has scored. It was also the highest score by an overseas batsman at the MCG.
Broad, meanwhile, was beginning to enjoy himself after a dicey start. He wore a couple, ducked a couple, edged a couple over the keeper’s head, but most importantly he kept the score moving. He backed away and carved the quicks through the off-side. He pulled them through square leg. He mowed Lyon for half a dozen over long-on. There was one back-foot drive that evoked those hazy early years of his career when serious cricket people with straight cricket faces made comparisons with David Gower and Garfield Sobers and suggested he might one day bat at No 6.
Eventually Broad perished, a magnificent low catch by Usman Khawaja running in from third man, even if it was not entirely clear whether he had taken it cleanly. In a way, it hardly mattered. The pitch is still excellent. Smith still has to bat. But England are well on top, and as Cook walked from the field the whole ground rose to acclaim one of the great Test innings by an Englishman in Australia. The series is dead. But in a strange way, for England it has never felt more alive.
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