Some things never change: The reassuring certainty of Alastair Cook

NICK FRIEND AT CHELMSFORD: A knock brutal in its serenity, Cook showed no concern for an 82nd professional century, more worried instead about seeing the job through. Whoever his opponent, whatever the format, some things don't change

Chelmsford: Middlesex 212, Essex 213-1 - Essex win by nine wickets

Scorecard

In an interview to be published on this website tomorrow, Alan Richardson – Worcestershire’s interim head coach for the next month – spoke of his intrigue at the prospect of his youthful bowling attack coming up against Alastair Cook.

For a competition written off in several quarters this year amid the arrival of The Hundred, it will still serve up plenty of storylines. On this evidence, Cook – still with his insatiable appetite for runs – will be one of them.

For different counties, the Royal London Cup will mean different things – varying availability across the domestic game has seen to that. For Richardson’s Worcestershire, that means a combination of youth development and a simultaneous acknowledgement that first team cricket remains a results industry.

But at Chelmsford on Sunday, the tournament was given its second taste of Essex, who really ought to be involved at its business end. They won their opening fixture on Thursday, a hard-fought battle against Hampshire – the kind that a less experienced team might have struggled to win – and were a level above once again in front of their own supporters three days later.

No side has been completely unaffected by secondments to The Hundred but, in the grand scheme of things, Essex have been let off lightly: only Dan Lawrence and Sam Cook are out of action – two fewer than in the original 2019 draft, when Lawrence, Ryan ten Doeschate, Simon Harmer and Cameron Delport were picked up. On top of that relatively good fortune, while Richardson is filling in for Alex Gidman on Birmingham Phoenix duty, Anthony McGrath remains at the helm for Essex, unrequired elsewhere.

Middlesex, their opponents on a humid afternoon that was haunted throughout by a changing weather forecast and the threat of thunderstorms, have been hit harder: they are without six of their regulars.

^{Alastair Cook and Tom Westley starred for Essex}

This was their first game at the end of a turbulent week in the midst of a challenging campaign: Angus Fraser has stepped down from his role as managing director of cricket, with Stuart Law now directly accountable to the club’s professional cricket committee. John Simpson has signed a new deal, but Nick Gubbins has appeared revitalised since leaving for Hampshire.

Of their 14-man squad for this game, nine are aged 24 or younger – a production line for which Fraser should take much of the credit.

Jack Davies, a surprise inclusion at the expense of Martin Andersson, made 70 on his List A debut. Ethan Bamber, 22, is the seventh-highest wicket-taker in this season’s County Championship. Joe Cracknell and Luke Hollman have each impressed in the T20 Blast, while the circumstances of this competition have belatedly given Thilan Walallawita an opportunity after a frustrating battle against ECB red tape.

The left-arm spinner has been living in the UK since he was 12 and progressed through county age-group levels but will only receive his official citizenship in December, meaning he has been unable to play as a domestic player in the meantime.

They are a predominantly young group who can only have learned from a trouncing, the foundations for which were laid by a below-par first innings on a lopsided Chelmsford playing area – one square boundary was an 80-metre hit, the other a more inviting hit towards the Western Homes stand. Middlesex found themselves 80 for 4 and 184 for 8, with only Davies and Robbie White facing more than 37 deliveries.

Then, as so often in his sparkling career, Cook made that total look inadequate in a manner that hardly allows description. Once upon a time in a previous era, he was England’s ODI captain and a churner of five international 50-over hundreds.

^{Jack Davies made 70 for Middlesex}

Those centuries were less memorable for their stroke-play than what has followed since under Eoin Morgan’s leadership, but they all followed a similar pattern to this performance of effortless composure against a bowling attack that must have feared it was short on runs to begin with.

Over the last two decades, the calling card of an in-form Cook has been his ability to punch the ball through the off-side. Middlesex, presumably in their reticence to stray onto his pads, were driven between extra cover and mid-on almost at will.

It was vintage Cook – the kind of display that Richardson would have been thinking about as an education for his bowlers. For 92 unbeaten runs, it was an exercise in nostalgia: clips, cuts and his trademark half-punch, all wrapped up in a reassuring sense of certainty.

“That was a typical innings for him in white-ball cricket,” said Tom Westley, his captain. “He was timing the ball beautifully. You know when he is hitting the ball straight and hard he is in a good space.”

A repeat may well come when Essex face Worcestershire on Thursday. In a competition featuring several inexperienced bowlers on some excellent batting tracks – Essex took just 39 overs to knock reach their 213-run target, with Westley also particularly fluent – you’d be brave to bet against Alastair Cook finishing as its leading run-scorer. Even in a month earmarked as a breeding ground for the next generation, his efficiency never seemed like waning, nor did he ever appear to tire of his task.

A knock brutal in its serenity and so at odds with the firework carnage of The Hundred, he showed no concern for an 82nd professional century, more worried instead about seeing the job through. Whoever his opponent, whatever the format, some things never change.

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