Cook revels in revival as England thrash Indians
SKIPPER Alastair Cook issued a public message of thanks to his team-mates for their backing during some dark days after England annihilated India in the fifth Test at the Oval yesterday to wrap up a commanding 3-1 series victory.
India slumped to 94 all out, the tourists’ second successive loss inside three days, as England won by an innings and 244 runs with Sussex’s Chris Jordan claiming career-best bowling figures of 4-18.
The hosts had earlier been dismissed for 486 after Joe Root further enhanced his burgeoning reputation with an unbeaten 149, making the Yorkshireman the highest run-scorer in the series with 518.
England’s dominance in the last three matches is a far cry from the 95-run defeat suffered at Lord’s in the second Test, which extended the team’s winless run to 10 as Cook came under intense pressure and faced strong calls to resign.
“It’s great to have the support of the guys throughout the tough times and it makes it all worthwhile now,” said Cook, aged 29.
“It was an amazing turnaround. After Lord’s, to have won like we’ve won the last three games, the guys can take a huge amount of credit.
“Obviously the coaching staff Peter Moores and Paul Farbrace, they’ve made a massive difference.”
England’s fortunes were revived with a 266-run win in the third Test at Southampton where man of the series James Anderson, who needs four more scalps to overtake Sir Ian Botham as the country’s leading Test wicket-taker, returned to form with a five-for.
And Cook insists India were unable to come up with the necessary answers once England rediscovered a way to play quality cricket on a consistent basis and started turning the screw on their opponents.
“All summer before we won at Southampton we played cricket in patches,” he added. “We played good cricket and then unfortunately let it go in an hour or so.
“In the end India crumbled once we maintained pressure like we did in the last three games and that pressure was then relentless.
“When you score runs with our bowling attack in favourable conditions, you make yourself hard to beat.”
After finding their feet again in the Test arena, England only face five more matches in the longer form of the game before next summer’s Ashes.
First up after the ICC World Cup is a three-Test tour of the West Indies in April followed by two Tests against New Zealand on home soil before the Australians arrive looking to defend the urn which they won so emphatically during the Winter whitewash.
“It’s a shame,” said Cook of the lack of imminent Test action. “But we’ll look again at the difference between how we’ve gone from not playing good cricket to playing as well as we have in the last three games and start again in the West Indies.
“They’ll be very different conditions in the West Indies but I don’t think we can worry about that.”