MANCHESTER: Alastair Cook and Dawid Malan sleepwalked their way to significant personal milestones on Friday morning at Edgbaston, although they might as well have been batting in the nets for all the resistance that was offered by a supine West Indies attack that seemed merely to be running down the clock towards England’s inevitable declaration.
Malan fell for 65 to the spin of Kraigg Brathwaite on the stroke of lunch, bringing to an end a fourth-wicket stand of 162, but Cook had ground along from his overnight 153 to reach 213 not out, his fourth Test double-century and second on a ground where he has now eclipsed David Gower’s tally of 767 runs to become the venue’s leading Test run-scorer.
Cook’s landmark was brought up in ignominious circumstances that fitted the occasion’s over-riding air of lethargy. On 198, he slashed the toiling Kemar Roach for a single to third man, only for the fielder, Kyle Hope, to trip over his own feet as the ball dribbled through his legs to the boundary. Cook acknowledged the crowd’s ovation with an underwhelmed wave of the bat — a sure sign that he has heftier milestones in his sights as the day wears on.
Malan built on his overnight 28 to record his maiden Test fifty. But the swish of his bat as he left the crease, after poking an off-stump delivery into the hands of Jermaine Blackwood, spoke volumes. He could, and should, have piled on the agony deep into the afternoon session..
England won toss
England 1st Innings
A N Cook not out 213
M D Stoneman b Roach 8
T Westley lbw b Cummins 8
*J E Root b Roach 136
D J Malan c Blackwood b Chase 65
Extras (lb 10, nb 6, w 3) 19
Total: (4 wickets; 117.2 Overs) 449
To bat: B A Stokes, †J M Bairstow, M M Ali, T S Roland-Jones, S C J Broad, J M Anderson
Bowling: Roach 28-8-86-2; Joseph 22-3-109-0; Cummins 23-3-86-1; Holder 21.3-4-79-0; Chase 16.5-1-73-1; Brathwaite 6-0-6-0
Fall: 1-14, 2-39, 3-287, 4-449
West Indies team: K Brathwaite, K Powell, S Hope, K Hope, R Chase, J Blackwood, †S Dowrich, *J Holder, K Roach, A Joseph, M Cummins
Umpires: S Ravi (India), Marais Erasmus (South Africa). TV umpire: Chris Gaffaney (New Zealand). Match referee: David Boon (Australia)