The Yorkshire Post says: The run machine. Alastair Cook's place in cricket history
GEOFFREY BOYCOTT might still regard himself as English cricket's best blocker with his proverbial stick of rhubarb, but there's no disputing Alastair Cook's status as this country's greatest accumulator of Test runs and the fifth most prolific international player in history.
The outgoing opening batsman’s record of 12,472 runs compares more than favourably with the game’s all-time greats and it was entirely fitting that he should mark his final Test innings with a century at The Oval against India.
Seventy years after Australia’s legendary Don Bradman suffered the ignominy of a second ball duck at the very same ground, Cook showed characteristic composure before reaching three figures– his 33rd Test century – courtesy of overthrows. Not only did the ovation illustrate the high esteem in which Cook will always be held, but that there’s still a place, even in the era of high octane Twenty20 cricket, for the less flamboyant run machines.