Alastair Cook Scores 71 On First Day Of Final Test

How England needed a classic demonstration on Friday of the strength and discipline that has made their most prolific batsman. And how an all too typical collapse showed just how much they will miss him.
The first day of the last Test at the Oval was all about the former England captain and his attempt to go out in the same glorious fashion in which he began his long and distinguished international career — with a century against India.
But it also became a tale of the chronic fragility that has dogged England for far too long and which can only get worse once the epitome of solidity that Cook in his prime represented has gone.
After a 50 stand with Cook, Keaton Jennings is caught by KL Rahul off Ravindra Jadeja for 23
Alastair Cook was dismissed for a dogged 71 after England opted to bat in the fifth Test
Alastair Cook failed to score a century on the first day of his final Test match for England
Cook walked off the field to a standing ovation, with many trying to capture the moment
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For more than two sessions in the late summer sunshine at a packed Oval the fairytale finale of Cook adding a 33rd Test century in his 161st and final England appearance looked very much on.

All the uncertainty of a series in which Cook has battled in vain against the ravages of time evaporated as the old-fashioned qualities that have brought so much success took him to 71 in England's 133 for one. 
Yet it was then that Jasprit Bumrah ruined the perfect England script when he trapped Cook neither forward nor back and had him jabbing at a ball outside off stump that struck his inside edge and cannoned into middle stump.
The Oval, the famous old ground that has seen so many emotional goodbyes throughout cricket history, was hushed, and disappointment was etched on Cook's face as he trudged off for the penultimate time.
Moeen Ali plays a shot as he builds a patient innings and reaches his 50 off 170 balls
Jasprit Bumrah appeals for the wicket of Joe Root as England's captain is dismissed for a duck
The whole ground rose to Cook, as they had done both when he walked out to bat and when he reached 50, while his wife Alice, due to give birth on Monday to their third child, smiled as she joined in the ovation.
The day had begun for Cook with the presentation of a special cap with ‘161' on it from team director Andrew Strauss, who talked of how ‘under-appreciated' this throwback of a dignified cricketer has always been.
There was no under-appreciation of Cook on a throwback of a day where England desperately tried and failed to prove they could bat with application at a slow tempo after Joe Root had won his fifth successive toss.
India had afforded Cook a guard of honour and a warm handshake at the end of it from Virat Kohli while the Oval roared its approval when he pushed Ishant Sharma through the covers to get off the mark off his eighth ball.
There was relief when Cook was dropped by Ajinkya Rahane on 37 at third slip and huge applause again when he reached his first half-century in 10 innings and the first 50 by any opener in a series dominated by seam and swing.
The stage was set but a brilliant Indian pace attack that has been as good as any visiting side in English conditions in years started to swing the Dukes ball more after lunch as it became older and England were becalmed.
England had seen Keaton Jennings throw his innings away in the softest of fashions when he tamely guided the returning left-arm spin of Rajindra Jadeja straight to KL Rahul at leg-slip.
Jonny Bairstow has now been dismissed for nought in three of his last four innings for England
Ben Stokes adds just 11 before falling lbw to Ravindra Jadeja as England collapse to 171-5
Jennings will still probably go to Sri Lanka this winter but he still has so much to do to prove he truly belongs.

After his departure, Moeen Ali desperately fought his attacking instincts to hang on at No 3 despite being dropped off a hard chance by Kohli on two.
The storm had appeared to have been weathered but once Cook was out 20 minutes after tea, India seized their chance and England crumbled alarmingly as they continue to do despite the triumph this series represents.
Root had insisted he wanted to return to four but it did nothing to reverse his poor run of form as he played all round Bumrah just three balls later and umpire Joel Wilson took an age to judge him lbw.

Then Jonny Bairstow, supposedly much happier now England have acceded to his wishes and given him back the gloves, flirted outside off stump to Ishant and could only edge through to Rishabh Pant.
Three wickets had crashed for one run in nine balls and suddenly the platform that had been laid so carefully by Cook and Moeen had crumbled.
This time there was to be no rescue act from the lower middle order.
Ben Stokes was plumb lbw to Jadeja, Moeen crawled to 50 off 170 balls but fell to the brilliant Ishant immediately afterwards and Sam Curran suffered the first failure in his meteoric start to his own career.
Jos Buttler was as surprised as the India players when he reviewed his lbw to Mohammed Shami seemingly in desperation only to find he had inside edged it on to his pad and lived to fight today alongside Adil Rashid.
England wordpress.com finished on 198 for seven, 25 of them coming in byes that owed everything to a ball that swung more and more as the day went on rather than any fumbling by Pant, and India ended it indisputably on top.
Those runs had come at just 2.2 an over, a pedestrian scoring rate far more typical in the era when Cook arrived on that memorable debut at Nagpur 12 years ago.

Only this time, sadly, he did not contribute a hundred of them.  
Sam Curran was caught behind off Ishant Sharma to become the third English duck of the day
Jos Buttler somehow survives following a review late on the first day as England finish on 198-7
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