Thomas Edison described genius as 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration, so where this leaves the Man Who Doesn’t Sweat is anyone’s guess. Alastair Cook’s genius lies not in the thunderous strokes, the pyrotechnic displays that can turn a match on its head. Instead it is enshrined in a capacity for unwavering concentration, for hour after hour; in the stamina to maintain this in alien conditions where the sun beats down relentlessly; and for the ability to have a gameplan and stick to it with a puritan rigidity.
Having batted through the entire third day, Cook, on the fourth, batted on and on until the day had almost drawn to a close, scratching his guard, walking his walk to square-leg between deliveries to settle his mind. By then he had spent longer at the crease than any man in the game’s history apart from the South African opener Gary Kirsten and, way beyond that of the original Little Master, Hanif Mohammad. Then Cook tried to sweep the offspin of Shoaib Malik, a shot he had played seemingly countless times over the past two days.
This time he got the gentlest of top edges which carried to short fine leg. Cook was gone. He left the field looking no more bedraggled than he had at the start, if a little peeved that he had not been able to surpass his own best of 294 against India at Edgbaston in 2011.
Whether Cook should have been reprieved is a subject of debate. The bowler’s front foot had landed flat, beyond the crease, and then in the action of delivery had slid back, as if moonwalking, so that it hovered over the line. It was a no-ball but for some reason, given that these things are routinely checked on the fall of a wicket, it was not given. That would have been harsh on Malik but it was a more clearcut no-ball than the one Stuart Broad delivered during Pakistan’s innings.
England’s captain had spent four minutes short of 14 hours at the crease in making his 263 runs – scoring from 528 deliveries with 18 fours – long enough to fly from the UAE to Sydney. Another two hours and he could have listened to the entire Ring Cycle.
If the match has long since had a meaningless air to it, then that cannot detract from the display of sheer physical and mental effort. At 774 minutes he surpassed his own longest innings, that in Birmingham, and at 798 minutes, he went past Sir Leonard Hutton (although astonishingly Hutton faced around 300 more deliveries in that time), who had played England’s previous longest innings.
Cook is unique in that he is the only batsman to appear twice in the list of top 10 longest innings. It was not a chance-less effort, however.
The catch he offered to square leg on the third day proved costly and also early on the fourth, when the inside edge that he got to Wahab Riaz’s delivery in the day’s fourth over carried low to the right of the keeper Sarfraz Ahmed, who dived, got a glove to it, but could not hold on. At that point Cook had added only five runs to his overnight 168. The pitch has been a poor one for Test cricket but catching on both sides has exacted a heavy price.
Cook’s marathon underpinned the England response to Pakistan’s first innings of 523 for eight. He was still there when England went past it, safety in the match long since assured. Suddenly, as the light closed in and the floodlights came on, the spinners, who between England and Pakistan had toiled for more than 1,000 deliveries before managing a wicket, began to profit as the England lower order threw the bat.
Ben Stokes helped break the barren wicket streak by dancing down the pitch and missing, to be bowled. Cook followed, as did Jos Buttler. At the close England had reached 569 for eight, an inconsequential lead of 46 but one which, with a little help in the pitch now, will give a second opportunity to Adil Rashid to show that his first innings figures were less an aberration than the general trend. SaturdayT could be the most interesting day of the match.
If it has been hard to wring any response from the pitch, then the bowlers of both sides have acquitted themselves commendably in their effort. In mid-afternoon Pakistan’s fastest bowler, the left-arm Wahab Riaz, produced a spell that was pure exhilaration to watch. Stokes had come to the crease following the dismissal of Joe Root for 85, and Jonny Bairstow for eight, the latter lbw to Wahab Riaz, and cranked his pace up to around 90mph. By now the ball was encased in suede and the third new ball was due.
But Wahab Riaz began to get some real reverse swing and started to take the pitch out of the equation as his coach, Waqar Younis, used to do. Stokes did immensely well to survive but Wahab Riaz all but burst with the effort – glorious stuff that deserved a reward that never came.
