Alastair Cook’s last ever Test innings – a composed, deft hundred, unbeaten as I write – was a triumph of all the qualities that have planted him in the record books. But on Test Match Special on day three (9 September) they were just hoping he’d get off the mark against India’s high-class new ball attack. Fraught nerves all round. Aggers grumbled about the inexplicably slow Oval scoreboard and Michael Vaughan kept saying the word tense. “The situation is tense.” “Adds to the drama and tension.”
It seems someone by the pavilion wasn’t suitably nervous. “Ploughing his way through the Sunday papers!” tutted Aggers, casting his eye around some more and then spotting Cook’s wife. “Ah. How’s Alice doing? She’s about as pregnant as it’s possible to be.” There was mention of the 20-year-old Rishabh Pant, India’s latest attempt to fill the shoes of MS Dhoni. Much schoolboy fun has been had of the wicket-keeper’s surname this summer, particularly by Aggers and Tuffers when he produced a few boundaries at Southampton: “Pant’s on fire!” Then, when he was out it was, “Pant’s stay at the crease was productive but brief!”
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