Cook just misses milestone as England dominate India

England opener Alastair Cook just missed out on reaching a remarkable triple- hundred as the hosts continued to turn the screw in the third cricket Test against India at Edgbaston on Friday.
Cook scored a career-best 294 as England racked-up a massive first innings total of 710-7 declared on day three, an unbeatable lead of 486 runs with two days play still remaining.
And England's position became even stronger when Indian opener Virender Sehwag was caught at slip for his second succesive opening ball duck, as the visitors began their second innings in disastrous fashion.
However, in fading light, Gautum Gambhir and Rahul Dravid steered India to 35-1 at the close of play, still needing a mammoth 451 runs to make England bat again.
India cannot possibly win the match now, but they will need to bat for the remaining two days to salvage a draw, or hope that some bad weather finds its way to Birmingham.
Starting the day on 456-3, in reply to India's score of 224, England continued to plunder runs at will.
And, after passing his second-ever Test double century, Cook looked on course to become only the sixth England batsman in history to reach 300, and first since Graham Gooch -- also against India -- in 1990.
However, he was caught in the deep, off the bowling of Ishant Sharma, just six runs short of that famous milestone.
Cook's marathon innings of 12 hours and 47 minutes fell just half an hour short of the England record, set by Len Hutton, when making 364 against Australia at The Oval in 1938.
Their score of 710 was was England's best for 73 years and their third highest of all-time behind the 903-7 declared against Australia at The Oval in 1938 and 849 against the West Indies at Kingston, Jamaica, in 1930.
It also leaves them perfectly placed to go an unbeatable 3-0 up in the four-Test series and secure the win that would see them replace India at the top of the Test Championship table.


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