Alastair Cook fulfilled the wishes of every spectator and England fan by hitting a century in his final Test innings.

VIEW SCORECARD

The 33-year-old opener, who retires at the end of the fifth Test against India at The Oval, was 46* overnight coming into the fourth day.

With the Kennington crowd affording the former captain a warm ovation at the start of play, Cook proceeded in a typical manner, clipping fours through the leg-side and pushes ones and twos as England briskly built their lead.

[caption id=”attachment_80997″ align=”alignnone” width=”1024″] Cook ensured a final Test average over 45[/caption]

Having made 71 in the first innings, he was clearly desperate to sign off with his 33rd Test century in his 291st innings for England.

[breakout id=”0″][/breakout]

He finally reached three figures at 12.40 off his 210th ball – an easy single was made into a five by a timely Jasprit Bumrah overthrow – to become the fifth player ever to achieve the feat of making hundreds in his first and final games.

He also passed Kumar Sangakkara’s 12,400-run tally of Test runs to go fifth on the list of all-time leading run-scorers.

There was a superb extended standing ovation from the crowd which had even the famously unflappable Cook visibly emotional at the crease.

Related tags:

Alastair CookCook RetirementInternational CricketMatch Coverage