Jul 14, 2014
England captain Alastair Cook jokes about “his genius bit of bowling” which helped him claim his first Test wicket and praises England’s hard work and James Anderson’s efforts during the draw against India at Trent Bridge.
In 2005 at Chelmsford, Essex had piled up 506, had secured a 259-run lead, and had asked Northamptonshire to follow-on; after being 73 for two, Bilal Shafayat and Usman Afzaal took the score to 202, and draw loomed on the horizon. Then Ronnie Irani threw the ball to a 20-year old Alastair Cook.
Afzaal, Shafayat, and Rikki Wessels were removed in the space of five runs before Danish Kaneria ran through the rest. The last eight wickets fell for 59, Cook finished with figures of 4-1-13-3, and that was that.
Eight years after that match, with the Trent Bridge Test meandering to a draw, Cook ran in to bowl innocuous off-breaks. It never looked like he would come remotely close to taking a wicket. He switched to medium-paced bowling in his second innings, and found Ishant Sharma’s edge with a ball that ran down the leg-side. Matt Prior took a one-handed catch to give Cook his first wicket in his 105th Test.