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Someone came to Old Trafford dressed as the Cookie Monster today. Perhaps it was a reference to the hundred-scoring monster that is Alastair Cook. Or maybe all his other clothes were in the wash.
Earlier today we made a comment about how we generally feel like we’ve seen Cook’s innings before. It wasn’t meant as a criticism. The familiarity of his run-scoring is a sign that he’s good at it.
Cook has his palette of shots and he deploys them to great effect. If he scored more quickly today, the innings will still look exactly the same on the highlights.
If you’re in any doubt of his worth, why not contrast his method with that of James Vince. Here is a batsman who is just as committed to his own, distinctive strokes; a batsman who in fact seems to have narrowed them all down to just one: the edged drive to slip. Good luck building a Test career on that one.
Joe Root also scored a hundred. Also familiar. Also welcome.
At this rate we will have shot by shot commentary, post by post, before too long.
Not sure I can handle this stream of mostly England cricket related information.
David Gower built a decent career on it.
Joe Root is context?
In other news…
…the latest Twitter roundup is a cracker:
http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/1037665.html
KC has been a busy chap these past couple of days.
I wonder whether England should consider dropping Hales down the order, rather than (as a lot of the pundits seem to be suggesting) dropping Hales altogether.
Am I the only person with this line of thought?
You mention Cook on the highlights, which makes this vaguely relevant: http://www.espncricinfo.com/england-v-pakistan-2016/content/story/1038077.html
Apropos to matters vaguely King Cricket rather than this actual thread, I thought some people might enjoy my blog piece about Thursday’s outing to Lord’s, not least because it includes a picture of a Pokémon displaying a worrying level of indifference to cricket at Lord’s:
http://ianlouisharris.com/2016/07/21/a-works-outing-to-the-middlesex-v-surrey-t20-match-at-lords-21-july-2016/
This is turning into a match very much of the 2011 class, where KP or Bell or someone scores a shedload of runs and England completely smash a good team. A welcome return to those days