Alastair Cook hit a double hundred to defy Australian attempts to wrap up England’s first innings in the fourth Ashes in Melbourne on Thursday.
The stoic opening left-hander reached 200 late on the third day, rebounding from a lean scoring series in the opening three Tests.
It was Cook’s fifth double hundred in 151 Tests with his highest score of 294 coming against India in Birmingham in 2011.
Twitter reactions to the double ton were, as always, enlightening and entertaining:
Sublime from Cook to bring up his double-century! #MagellanMilestones pic.twitter.com/OmvHM94wt7
— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) December 28, 2017
First, the records
Most Test 200s by Current players:
— Broken Cricket (@BrokenCricket) December 28, 2017
6 ~ Virat Kohli
5 ~ Alastair Cook
4 ~ Hashim Amla
3 ~ Cheteshwar Pujara
3 ~ Azhar Ali
Hammond. Lara. And now Cook. Just three visiting batsmen have scored two double-centuries in Australia in Test history #Ashes
— Adam Burnett (@AdamBurnett09) December 28, 2017
Most 150+ scores for England in Tests:
— Brydon Coverdale (@brydoncoverdale) December 28, 2017
11 - Alastair Cook
10 - Wally Hammond
10 - Len Hutton
10 - Kevin Pietersen#Ashes
Alastair Cook has now scored more runs in Test Cricket than Brian Lara. #bbccricket #ashes pic.twitter.com/v6KZp5SbKJ
— Test Match Special (@bbctms) December 28, 2017
Most runs in Test cricket:
— Deepu Narayanan (@deeputalks) December 28, 2017
15921 S Tendulkar
13378 R Ponting
13289 J Kallis
13288 R Dravid
12400 K Sangakkara
11956 A COOK *
Cook went past Lara (11953), Chanderpaul (11867) and Mahela (11814) during the course of this innings.#Ashes
Alastair Cook went from 9th highest run-scorer in Tests to 6th in 24 hours, passing Jayawardene, Chanderpaul & Lara.#bbccricket
— Andrew Samson (@AWSStats) December 28, 2017
Longest innings by any visiting batsman in Australia...since Alastair Cook at the Gabba in 2010.
— The Ashes on BT Sport (@btsportcricket) December 28, 2017
Most Test Runs away from Home
— Jasveer Singh Kharra (@imjsk27) December 28, 2017
Sachin : 8705 @ 54.74
Dravid : 7667 @ 53.61
Kallis: 6171 @ 53.66
Alastair Cook: 5832 @ 48.20
Ponting: 5800 @ 46.40
Lara: 5695 @ 48.26
Chanderpaul : 5680 @ 45.44#Ashes
Dead rubber debate
Some people seem to be belittling Cook's innings because it's in a "dead rubber". Since when was trying to avoid an Ashes whitewash anything to do with dead rubbers?
— Lawrence Booth (@the_topspin) December 28, 2017
Yes, yes.. Cook’s done alright too. But where was this Cook when it mattered? #Ashes
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) December 28, 2017
Say what you want, think what you want but that is a brilliant 200 from Alastair Cook. #ashes #MCG https://t.co/5YvKBt8Blb
— Michael Clarke (@MClarke23) December 28, 2017
Happy for Cook to make runs & Anderson/Broad to get wickets in a dead rubber - just sets their inevitable rebuild back by another 6 months.
— Leigh Fabris (@TheBontIsGod) December 28, 2017
Two blokes given out when they should have reviewed and some profligacy from the the middle order and England still in a position from which they shouldn’t lose. And that is thanks to Cook.
— Peter Miller (@TheCricketGeek) December 28, 2017
Polarized views on Cook’s double as its in a “lost cause” with the series down,should we then dismiss all scores of all players in “dead rubbers”?Must appreciate that despite the critics gunning for him,he has come out strong,remember Younis Khan at Sydney?
— zainab abbas (@ZAbbasOfficial) December 28, 2017
A great career saving innings from Cook in a dead rubber match. All the credit should go to Starc for not playing in this test match #Ashes
— Chiranthhh (@ChiranthJSA) December 28, 2017
People on here sayings it’s easy to perform when the #Ashes have been lost and in a dead rubber clearly have no idea how hard it is to score Test 100s ... The Ashes have gone but the England team have shown lots of pride this week which is what all involved wanted to see.. #OnOn
— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) December 28, 2017