Cook up to sixth on list of all-time Test run scorers, above Brian Lara
Friday 29 December 2017 08:46, UK
Alastair Cook inked himself into the record books after a masterful, unbeaten double ton at the MCG. Benedict Bermange has the numbers...
Alastair Cook has never carried his bat in 271 first-class matches - yet…
This is Cook's fifth Test double century, putting him alone in second place for England:
Wally Hammond - 7
Alastair Cook - 5
Len Hutton - 4
Kevin Pietersen 3
Cook joined the select band of batsmen to have scored at least two Ashes double centuries:
Don Bradman - 8
Wally Hammond - 4
Bobby Simpson - 2
Steve Smith - 2
Alastair Cook - 2
Cook joined Hammond (3) and Brian Lara (2) as the only previous visiting players with at least two double centuries in Australia.
The left-hander also overtook Hammond's 1928 innings of 200 as the highest by an England batsman in a Test at the MCG and then subsequently Viv Richards' score of 208 as the highest by a visiting batsman at the ground:
Cook is only the second England player with multiple Test double centuries in a calendar year. Hammond scored two each in 1928, 1933 and 1936.
When he reached 129, Cook became the sixth England batsman to score at least 1,500 runs in Tests in Australia:
Cook and Mahela Jayawardene are the only players to have batted for over 10 hours on four occasions in Test cricket.
Having started his innings in ninth place among the all-time leading Test runs-scorers, he is no up to sixth, moving past:
Mahela Jaywardene when he reached 103
Shivnarine Chanderpaul when he reached 156
Brian Lara when he reached 242
Despite Cook having played in all 113 of Stuart Broad's Tests, this was only the second time they have batted together - the only previous occasion was against Pakistan at Sharjah in 2015. Subsequently Cook featured in a 10th-wicket partnership for the first time in his 151-Test career.
Stuart Broad's innings of 56 is the highest by an England number 10 in Tests in Australia, surpassing the 50 not outs from Tich Freeman at Sydney in 1924 and by David Allen at Sydney in 1966.
Joe Root converted eight of his first 21 scores over fifty in Test cricket into a century, but since then he has only converted five of his last 27 such scores.
