Thursday, July 7, 2011

Cook - My Greatest Ever Innings

England captain Alastair Cook felt he produced his finest ever innings after he top-scored as the hosts beat Sri Lanka by 10 wickets in the fourth one-day international at Trent Bridge.

Cook made 95 off 75 balls to lead his country to victory and his opening partner Craig Kieswetter (71 not out) also weighed in with an impressive total as England reached their revised 171 target with ease and the Essex batsman said he was enjoying his cricket and the captaincy.

"I don't always time the ball as well as that, a couple of innings dont stop criticism and I have to do that over a long period of time. Tough times are good times and when you win you enjoy it," he said. "It was outstanding, we were lucky enough to win the toss; the way we bowled was fantastic and put them under pressure and then knocking them off without losing a wicket was fantastic."



England eased to victory with only a temporary rain delay threatening to stop both Cook and Kieswetter's onslaught, but only two overs were lost to the weather as the hosts kept well ahead of their Duckworth-Lewis adjusted target to level the five-match series at 2-2.

Earlier, James Anderson tore through the Sri Lanka top order, finishing with figures of three for 24 as only Kumar Sangakkara (75) made a score of any note for the visitors and Cook was full of praise for his bowling attack.

He said: "He (Anderson) was outstanding, it didn't move that much. They all bowled well, I was really pleased for (Stuart Broad) to pick up some wickets and Jade (Dernbach) bowled well in the power play."

"We did well and I think at the end we proved it was a good wicket, Craig and I proved it was a very good wicket."

Sri Lanka captain Tillakaratne Dilshan felt their poor start cost them the chance of posting a competitive total but he remained confident his side could win the series at Old Trafford on Saturday.

"I think we have a good chance to win the next match and the series," he said.
"If we had batted all of the overs and past 240 it is a good total, but they ended up chasing a small total under no pressure and could bat freely."