Alastair Cook: A fairy tale ending to a perfect startÂ
The believers in fairy tales may find the career of England's Alastair Cook as a shining example. Chef, as he is fondly called, ended his International Cricket career after the fifth and final Test against India at Kennington Oval in London. In the span of Twelve and half years of career, Cook featured for England in 161 Tests, 92 ODIs and 4 T20Is.
Hastened Retirement
A week earlier, soon after England wrested the Pataudi Trophy 3-1 from India with one more Test to go, the England opener announced his retirement quoting the fifth Test at Kennington Oval would be his final one.
The decision appeared to be a hastened one as he is just 33, but the ax was about to fall on him as he struggled for runs throughout the series, managing only 109 runs in seven innings averaging just 15.57.
In fact, after relinquishing the captaincy before 2017 season, Cook was not among runs consistently for a prolonged period. In 21 Tests (including his final match), his returns were 1415 runs with an average of 38.25 which was far below his overall career average of 45.35.
Fairy Tale Finish
But, his final appearance appeared to have erased all those gloomy memories of the recent past. After his Captain Joe Root opted to bat first, Cook while walking towards the pitch to open the innings, received a guard of honor from Indian fielders.
Once the initial anxious moments were over, he was successful in arresting his slide of low scores with a gritty 71 of 190 deliveries, laying a solid foundation for the first innings in which England posted a decent total of 332.
Once Indians were bowled out for 292 in their first innings, Cook got another and final chance to bat for his country just before Tea on the third day of the Test. He applied himself from the word go, survived for a couple of sessions, ending the day with unbeaten 46.
On the fourth day, the English opener was at ease scoring freely. He got an able partner in his Captain Root who was looking fluent as well. Both of them batted beautifully taking England to a commanding position in the next two sessions.
The crowd came in good number though it was a Monday. They came to watch their hero bat for one last time and he didn't disappoint them. Once the throw from Indian fielder Bumrah went wide of stumps towards boundary, Cook raised his bat to celebrate his 33rd century.
The family members, his teammates, few fans dressed as chefs and entire crowd were on their feet applauding the chef for his final recipe. The ovation continued for a couple of minutes and the performer had to force himself to get back to the business. Once he got dismissed at 147 he got a great send-off from opponents as well as from Indian fielders, who came down to shake hands with him.
A day later, England bowlers managed to defend the lead of 463 runs bowling India out for 345 ensuring a fairy tale ending for their former Captain who had lead them 59 times. For all the heroics in his final match, Cook signed off with Man of the Match medallion and a well-deserved champagne bottle.
A perfect beginning
If you look back to the early days of Cook's career, you may be forced to think his International beginning was even more eventful. Cook was in the early days of his career playing for England A side in Feb 2006 when he got his first International call.
He was asked to hurriedly board the flight to India where his national team was playing a 3-Test series. He was drafted into the side as a backup to the opener Marcus Trescothick who was fighting injuries.
Having landed in India just 2 days before the start of the first Test, Cook had never thought of making a debut in that Test itself. But as the drama unfolded in Nagpur Test, he had to take guard along with Andrew Strauss on the opening day itself and scored a gritty 60. He faced the well established famous Indian spin pair of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh with utmost confidence and went on to score an unbeaten 104 in the second innings.
An English batsman scoring a century on debut in Indian conditions and that too against the World Class spin bowling attack raised a lot of eyebrows and expectations as well. From then on there was no looking back for Alastair Cook who went on create many records for England including a marathon streak of 158 consecutive Test appearances in the span of next twelve years.
In the elite club
There have been only five instances (including Cook) in Test history where a batsman has scored centuries in both, the first and the final matches of his career; the previous one happened 18 years back when India's Mohammed Azharuddin scored 102 in his final match at Bangalore in 2000 against South Africa. Earlier, he had scored 110 at Kolkata in his debut match against England in 1984.
Among those five batsmen, Cook became the third batsman who had played against the same opposition in his debut and farewell matches. As a mere coincidence all three of them chose Kennington Oval for their swansong match.