Alastair Cook falls short of farewell century as England lose six wickets for 48 runs in disastrous batting collapse

England 198-7 vs India: 133-1 became 181-7 in less than 20 overs after Cook gave England a good start in perfect batting conditions

Cook received a standing ovation for his half-century (Getty)

For four halcyon hours, it was just like old times. The Oval hummed a contented hum, the aerial cameras passed the time with well-practised panning shots over the Thames from Big Ben, and the scoreboard ticked with an analgesic languor. It was a day of slow, unspectacular accumulation, a day for grit and patience and unhurried trips to the bar, and in a way it felt like its own very fitting tribute to the career of Alastair Cook.

And over those four hours, you began to sense that Cook was constructing one last masterpiece: one last century to gild his final curtain call. The track was true but slow; Joe Root had won the toss for the fifth time out of five and elected to bat in pale September sunshine. One by one, Cook had offered up a valedictory rendition of his greatest hits: the cut, the pull, the interminable leaves outside off stump, the tentative push for three through the covers. As Cook sailed past 30, past 50, past 70, the angsts and anxieties of the last few years seemed to be melting away into the afternoon air.

It wasn’t to be. On 71, Jasprit Bumrah dragged one just short of a length, Cook tried to force off the back foot, and with the finality of a striking clock, the ball thudded off the inside edge and into his middle stump. Reality washed over like an ice bath. Even Bumrah looked vaguely abashed, as a capacity crowd reluctantly rose to its feet to acclaim its departing linchpin.

There was no farewell century in his first innings (Getty)

And for England, too, reality was about to exact a harsh reckoning. Cook’s departure was the first tremor in a middle-order avalanche that left them reeling at 134-4. They ended the day in the valley of their latest batting slump, six wickets gone in the final session, another promising effort undone by collective brain fade. And perhaps it was a bittersweet reminder that for all his faults and failures, and as ineffectual as he became in his last years, Cook at his indomitable peak could glue together a batting order like nobody else.

You suspect, as he made his entrance shortly before 11am to a roar of acclaim and a guard of honour from the Indian players that will have embarrassed him immensely, that this was the Cook they were saluting. Not the indifferent captain. Not the unwitting signatory of Kevin Pietersen’s cricketing death warrant. Not the affable family man with mud on his wellies or lambswool on his trousers.

But the batsman: a batsman who grasped at the cloths of greatness, and fleetingly managed to clutch them in his fist. The Cook of four Ashes triumphs. The Cook who would be batting when you finally dozed off with Test Match Special in your earphones and who would still be batting when you awoke sleepy-eyed with dawn breaking through your window.

And so for one last time, Cook slipped on his tattered cape and went to work. After an untroubled start, he lost Keaton Jennings just before lunch, turning the spin of Ravindra Jadeja into the hands of leg slip and punching his bat with frustration as he departed. It was a timely reminder that the opening batsman’s greatest enemy is not loss of talent or loss of form, but loss of concentration.

India’s seamers bowled superbly after lunch. Six overs passed without a run as the ball darted past the outside edge again and again. Cook was dropped by Ajinkya Rahane in the gully, Moeen Ali by Virat Kohli at third slip. Mohammed Shami bowled an insuperable nine-over spell. But the storm passed. To enormous cheers, Cook tapped Shami down the ground for two to bring up his 57th Test fifty. England made it to tea unscathed.

Root was given out by lbw before scoring a run (Getty)

And then, shortly after the resumption, it was all over. A crash of ash, a sad glance from Cook over his left shoulder, his day’s work in pieces. As he ascended the steps to the dressing room, Root gave him a little pat on the back on his way down. It felt like a liminal gesture: England’s batting past on its way out, England’s batting future tagging himself into play.

Alas, Root was soon to follow, and in dispiriting familiar fashion: LBW to Bumrah’s inswinger, playing across a straight delivery and fatally overbalancing. Jonny Bairstow, wary of the inswinger tailing into his stumps, hung out his bat at a slightly wider one and got a feather of an edge, and in the space of nine balls, England had lost three wickets for one run.

Ben Stokes lasted an hour before missing Jadeja’s quicker yorker, and so only Moeen remained of the day’s earlier, more serene phase. Leaving with discipline, on length as much as on line, Moeen endured with his customary grace: forcing the Indian bowlers to pitch it up to him, and then clouting them off the front foot. His fifty was a fitting reward for a fine day’s effort, but shortly after Ishant Sharma bowled him a peach, seaming away and just catching the edge.

The first new ball had barely swung at all, and yet now, with the second imminent, India were moving it around corners. Poor Rishabh Pant conceded 25 byes behind the stumps, but by far the greatest threat was to England’s batsmen. By the time Sam Curran had gone for a second-ball duck - his first failure with the bat in Test cricket - England were in damage limitation mode.

Jos Buttler made it to stumps by a hair’s breadth, twice saved by UltraEdge - caught when he hadn’t hit the ball, and LBW when he had. But on the whole, an underwhelming day from the home side: just like old times, in fact, but not quite in the way England would have wanted.