Thaindian News

Birmingham, Aug 13 (IANS) England batsman Alastair Cook scored 294 to bat India out of the Edgbaston Test, but the left hander said he was disappointed at missing out on a triple century.

“It’s mad, isn’t it, how you can still be disappointed when you score 290-odd,” Cook said.

“Only cricket can do that for you. I’m really thrilled that I put a really big score together but there is a tinge of disappointment,” Cook was quoted as saying in The Guardian.

England piled up 710 for seven Friday, taking a first innings lead of 486 runs.

Cook batted more than 13 hours to guide England to a dominating position. Only Len Hutton has ever batted longer for England in a Test. Hutton (364) achieved the feat during England’s record Test score of 903 runs against Australia at the Oval in 1938.

Asked if there was anything else in the world he would rather do for 13 hours, he could think of nothing.

“You do the fitness work so you can cope physically and then the mental concentration is something that you pick up over time,” Cook said.

“As a batting side, we never have enough. I felt a little bit leggy on the first night, but today I felt fine, although after I was out it was nice to have a sit down.

“When you bowl a side out in two sessions you can bat as long as you want,” he said.

“There were no time constraints. We wanted to grind out a big first-innings lead. The pitch is not going to get any easier. I think 700-plus is a pretty good effort.”