England hero: It was deliver or be dropped

ENGLAND batting hero Alastair Cook spoke of his pride yesterday at delivering a double century that has put England in a commanding position in the fourth Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

But Cook also admitted regret that his epic innings had come too late, with the Ashes already surrendered. England finished day three on 491 for nine, with an impressive lead of 164 and Cook still there on 244, having gone past Mahela Jayawardene, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Brian Lara to sixth in the list of top Test run scorers.

‘I feel a bit sorry for Brian Lara, most of my runs are pretty ugly,’ said Cook, who realised his future as an England opener had been on the line after 151 Tests following a run of 11 innings without a fifty. ‘They’d have been entitled to drop me. I hadn’t scored a run since Edgbaston (243 against West Indies last August).

‘I always felt I had the backing of the selectors, but you have to deliver and I hadn’t done that on this tour. So it meant a lot to deliver a really big one.

‘I’m quite proud that I was able to do that, but it’s a shame it came three-and-a-half weeks too late. I’ll live with that for a long time.’

Cook, who called the innings ‘one of the more emotional’ of his 32 Test centuries, was not sure why his form had returned in such fashion after the worst drought of his Test career.

‘With my batting, there are quite a few moving parts,’ he said. ‘When they’re not quite in sync, it can be frustrating. I got to 40 and the old movements were back. If I could put my finger on what it is, it would have saved me from a lot of strife.

‘I’ve doubted myself for 12 years and I’ll probably continue to doubt myself. The longer it goes (a bad run), the harder it becomes. So I suppose that’s why I can be proud, going to the well again and delivering a performance like that.’

Cook put on 100 for the ninth wicket with Stuart Broad, who made 56 and celebrated the double-ton moment more excitedly than Cook himself.

‘The feeling when I went into the changing room was very special,’ said Cook. ‘We’ve kept together really well when a lot of things have been going on.

‘I enjoyed batting with Broady and I enjoyed listening to the Barmy Army.

‘They’re incredible, the England fans. They’ve supported us through thick and thin on every tour I’ve been on.

‘This tour, batting for half an hour has felt like two hours. Then for some reason the last ten hours have gone quickly. I suppose I had nothing to lose in one sense, so I said: “Right, I’m going to play a lot more positively”.’

Australia coach Darren Lehmann saluted Cook’s performance, saying: ‘He was brilliant. He played to his strengths and was really positive and the England side batted around him.

‘Mitchell Starc was a big loss to our bowling attack and, hopefully, he’ll be right for Sydney.’