Alastair Cook’s smile finally reached his eyes. Until now, his gestures were limited to a half-smile and a grimace. Having shrugged aside poor form besides helping England along the way to a victory in Tests after 10 games, Cook could afford to laugh.
The England skipper said: “The weight is lifted.” He couldn’t have worded it better after all the recent agony. “Playing to our potential after a long time. This summer we have played good cricket for one or two sessions out of three. But here, bowling, we have managed to keep that pressure for the whole session. And with the bat we got greedy — that set up the game. Scoreboard-pressure told and we had as good a game as you could have,” Cook said here on Thursday.
Explaining the emotions coursing through him, Cook said: “It's been a better week — we have won a game and I have scored runs. Gary Balance ran to collect a stump and I had forgotten they did not know what it was like to win a Test match.
“The important thing is that we back itup and take it on to Old Trafford.” The skipper also lauded all his team-mates including James Anderson and Moeen Ali.
Meanwhile Anderson said that he almost bowled at his best. “I think this game was somewhere near it (my best), the ball swung which helpsas that is my strength.
“But at the same time it swung at Lord's and we didn't get it right as a group. But I felt we were absolutely relentless here as a group of four seamers. Our job now is to maintain that through the series,” Anderson said.
