Cook misses hundred but serves up timely joy for England

England captain overtakes critic Kevin Pietersen to be third on country's all-time scorers' list with his 95 to mark a return to form.

Alastair Cook, right, was dropped by Ravindra Jadeja, centre, when he was on 15. Christopher Lee / Getty Images

SOUTHAMPTON, England // The England captain Alastair Cook spoke openly of his relief, despite falling agonisingly short of his first century in over a year, as he finally made a positive contribution with the bat on the opening day of the third Test against India.

Cook, 29, looked set to take his Test tally to 26 hundreds – 14 months and 28 innings after getting his 25th – but Ravindra Jadeja spoiled the party by dismissing him, caught-behind down leg-side, on 95.

“If you’d have offered me that at the beginning of the day, of course I’d have taken it,” Cook told Sky Sports.

“I’m disappointed because it adds to the innings without a hundred, but I’ve batted OK and it’s nice to finally contribute.”

Cook and Sam Robson (26) started the day with their first half-century opening stand together, at the eighth attempt, before the England captain’s second-wicket partnership of 158 with Gary Ballance (104 not out) powered England into a strong position.

The hosts finished the day on 247 for two, with Ballance and Ian Bell (16) at the crease, ready to go again today. Cook, meanwhile, can reflect on a job well done as he finally managed to answer his critics.

“I can’t tell you how much I wanted to score a hundred,” he said. “The support I’ve had throughout this period, which I’m not through yet, but it’s a little step in the right direction, has been great. When you haven’t scored runs for a long time, it’s only natural to be nervous and only natural to want it even more.”

The England captain’s performance took him past Kevin Pietersen and David Gower, and into third place on the country’s list of all-time Test runscorers, but Cook insisted that was not as important as simply getting back among the runs.

“Honestly, it was nothing to do with that today,” he said. “I did see it at tea, but I was just desperate to score runs.

“It’s been a long time since I was able to do it and contribute to the England team, and that’s what has hurt me more than anything.

“When you don’t score runs, you sit back in the dressing room and you watch people do that and you try to talk about it, you try to lead from it, but when you don’t feel you’re doing anything personally, that’s a hard place to be.

“At least, tonight I can feel I contributed to that.”

As well as solving his own problems with the bat, Cook has also been under intense pressure to arrest a run of seven defeats in nine matches for England.

That run prompted a host of former players to call for Cook, who hit nine fours in his 95 on Sunday, to resign the captaincy.

Pietersen joined those calling for Cook to step down in his Daily Telegraph column on Saturday, but he tweeted a congratulatory message as he watched Cook’s progress on Sunday.

He said: “Under the amount of pressure Cook was under, that was quite brilliant! Really happy he got runs. Well done, AC #95”

With three days left, Cook knows his side have a good chance of levelling the series and wants to see them build upon what he started.

“We’re in a good position after Day 1,” he said.

“There are lot of miles in their legs, but tomorrow we’ll have to earn the right again and hopefully accelerate later and put some damage on the ball.”