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Alastair Cook: The Indefatigable, Undefeated, Gentleman Cricketer

The mental side of sports has always fascinated me. Earlier, I thought Cricket to be the most demanding of mental game but then every sports, be it Tennis, Golf, Motor sports etc. has got it's share of mental gumption. But Test Cricket is gotta be at the top of this list. You play 6 hrs of Cricket for full five days in front of a sizeable crowd. You gotta be at the top of the game at all times. You cannot slug out there and if you have a reputation to fight for and are an ageing star, currently struggling with form and facing an almighty bowling attack in a foreign land, in front of a hostile crowd who loves to hate you, you just cannot stop fighting. This deadly combination will devour you day in and day out. And that's exactly what happened to Alastair Cook in the first three Magellan Ashes Test Matches. He went 10 innings without a fifty and for a cricketer who is a veteran of 150 Test matches with more than 11000+ test runs, that's as much a dreaded nightmare as one could possibly have. Moreover, Englishmen lost the urn. But there were still two test matches to be played at two of the most iconic grounds of Australia: The 'G and SCG. And if there is one thing we have learnt about Cook, it is his mental reserve which he could dig very deep into to live and fight another day. Yesterday, he made a rousing hundred in front of a crowd of 66000+. Barmy Army, the most passionate and loyal fan base of Cricketing world, cheered his every run. Cook has been their hero for so long. Yes, they love to deride him, despise his dour game but they also know he is the ONE who knows how to play proper 'test match' cricket. This also shows how much the fan support means to a sportsperson. When Cook was leaving the ground, the entire 'G gave him a standing ovation and Cook saluted them, not once but twice. As George Dobell put in on his ESPNCricinfo article, even some of the battle-hardened Australians stood up to him and congratulated him because they knew here was a Good man fighting not for only his survival, which was most important, but his country's too. Cook has now become only the second man, behind the legendary Sunny Gavaskar, to have hit a century each at Gabba, Perth, Adelaide, MCG and SCG. That's five hundred in Australia and now only Sachin lies ahead of him in the list with 6 hundreds at Aussie soul. You would argue, that's​ a pretty good company to gun for.......#Respect.....#BarmyArmy.....#ThreeFingersRoyalSalute

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