Alastair Cook surpasses Sunil Gavaskar’s opening record

Apr 6, 2019 at 2:16 PM

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Alastair Cook surpasses Sunil Gavaskar’s opening record

England captain Alastair Cook surpassed legendary batsman Sunil Gavaskar as top run-scorer in Tests as an opening batsman during Day 2 of first Test against Pakistan at Lord’s on Friday. Cook now has 9,624 runs to his name, while Gavaskar has 9,607 runs. The left-handed batsman broke Gavaskar’s opening record when he cut Mohammad Amir for four  to go to 61.

The 31-year-old England captain had already become the youngest player in the history of cricket to score 10,000 Test runs but 13 of his innings were not as an opener.

Riding his luck, the English skipper scored 81 before becoming Mohammad Amir’s first Test scalp after he inside edged a delivery to the stumps. But before that Pakistan spilled him twice. First Mohammad Hafeez failed to hold on to a straightforward nick off Mohammad Amir when Cook was only on 22 and then Sarfraz Ahmed made a hash of an opportunity when the skipper was on 55. Amir was the unlucky bowler on both the occasions.

Earlier in the day, English bowlers Chris Woakes and Stuart Broad took little time to clean Pakistan’s tail. Resuming the day on their overnight score of 282 for 6, Pakistan could manage only 57 runs and were dismissed for 339 runs. Woakes got the hosts an early breakthrough as he dismissed Pakistan’s glovesman Sarfraz Ahmed for 25 to register his first five-wicket haul and dismissed Wahab Riaz for  a duck in the same over.

Broad picked up the remaining two wickets, including the vital scalp of Pakistan skipper Misbah-ul-Haq who could add only four runs to his overnight score of 110.

In reply to Pakistan’s first innings total of 339, England started poorly as Rahat Ali sent back opener Alex Hales in only the second over of the innings. Alastair Cook (81) and Joe Root (48) then steadied the ship with a 110-run stand for the second wicket to keep Pakistan bowlers at bay.

But then a fine spin bowling display from Yasir Shah left England reeling  on 253 for seven, 86 behind on the first innings with Woakes on 31 and Stuart Broad 11.

Top 5  leading opening batsmen in Test cricket:

Player                                            Mat          Inns      Runs        HS          Ave     

Alastair Cook (Eng)                      123          219       9630         294        46.52   
Sunil Gavaskar (India)                119          203       9607         221        50.29   
Graeme Smith (ICC/SA)             114          196       9030         277        49.07      
Mathew Hayden (Aus)                103          184       8625         380        50.73      
Virender Sehwag (ICC/India)     99           170        8207        319        50.04      

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