England vs West Indies, 1st Test, Day 1 at Edgbaston: Alastair Cook’s 10th 150 plus score and other highlights

This is Cook’s career’s tenth 150 plus Test score, his previous being 263 against Pakistan in 2015.

As expected, England dominated West Indies on Day One of the first-ever day-night Test on home soil. The visitors at Edgbaston, however, had a positive start, having dismissed two of the England batsmen early on. But it was the experienced Alastair Cook and feisty Joe Root that built a massive partnership to England on the driver’s seat. Though the partnership was broken before just before stumps, with 348 runs on the board and 7 wickets in hand, England are in a position of strength in the Test already. Here are some highlights from the exciting game of opening day at Edgbaston that took place on Thursday.

First day-night Test, with pink ball, in England: August 17, 2017 will go down in history to be remembered as the day when the first day-night Test in England commenced. One of the pioneers of the game, England welcomed this improvisation of cricket’s purest form, hosting a day-night match to be played with pink ball.

Alastair Cook opens with his 12th partner: As Mark Stoneman walked out to bat, he became Cook’s 12th opening partner since 2012. The others are – Nick Compton, Joe Root, Michael Carberry, Sam Robson, Jonathan Trott, Adam Lyth, Moeen Ali, Alex Hales, Ben Duckett, Haseeb Hameed and Keaton Jennings.

West Indies strike early: It was the start West Indies had wanted. Seasoned pacer Kemar Roach got rid of debutant Stoneman for only 8 runs, in the third over of the innings. Soon after, Tom Westley was sent back by Miguel Cummins for 8, which reduced England to 39 for 2.

Joe Root’s century: Joe Root carried forward his latest, brilliant form, scoring the 13 th Test ton of his career at Edgbaston. He now has 11 successive scores of fifty plus, which is just one less than by AB de Villiers’ world record (12).

Root-Cook partnership: The seemingly unbreakable partnership between Root and Cook was broken for 248 runs by Roach as he sent Root back for 136. This is the tenth highest partnership by English batsmen for the 3rd wicket. It also is the highest third-wicket partnership at the venue.

Alastair Cook’s unique record: Cook becomes only the third batsman to have scored a hundred each in his debut day Test and debut day-night Test. The other two players are Faf du Plessis and Stephen Cook.

Alastair Cook’s 153*: After Root’s departure, Cook continued batting to remain unbeaten at 153 at stumps. This is Cook’s career’s tenth 150 plus Test score, his previous being 263 against Pakistan in 2015.