Harbhajan Singh remembers Cook’s debut Test ton which came off his bowling

With England opener Alastair Cook slamming his 33rd and final Test hundred at the Oval on Monday, it was a sort of reliving history for Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh as well, though not on the ground but off it. Like in his last, Cook had hit a Test hundred against the same opposition in his debut game as well and his special moment had come off the bowling of the Turbanator.

The left-hander made every minute count in his farewell Test, hitting a century in the second innings after a 71 in the first, making up much for an otherwise dull series. Propelled by his 134 not out (at the time of writing this report) as well as a century from captain Joe Root, England were in the driver’s seat at the Oval by taking an overall lead of 338 runs with eight wickets in hand.

Bhajji dropped Cook in the 90s

Harbhajan, 38, who is commentating for the series, recalled the memory after Cook hit his last century. The man had scored his debut century (104 not out) in the second innings at Nagpur in 2006 but not before Bhajji had dropped him in the 90s, a fact that the latter himself said in a tweet on Monday. Cook had thumped a slightly short delivery from the off-spinner down the cover point to hit a boundary in the 86th over of the innings and pick his first international three-figure score.

Bhajji tweeted: “I am part of this piece of history..dropped cookie in his 90s on his debut…now here he is.. what a LEGEND.”

I am part of this piece of history..dropped cookie in his 90s on his debut…now here he is 😊.. what a LEGEND pic.twitter.com/DkhITPocAR

— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) September 10, 2018

Cook, during his productive game at the Oval, overtook Sri Lankan great Kumar Sangakkara to become the fifth highest run-getter in Tests (12,449 and counting). He has taken 161 matches to accomplish the feat and only Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Jaques Kallis and Rahul Dravid have more runs than him. Cook scored 33 hundreds and 57 fifties in a career spanning over 12 years.

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