Thrilled to have scored 294 than missing out on 300: Cook

“It’s taken almost 13 hours of hard work to get to that opportunity to make 300. When you don’t do it,it’s going to have a little of disappointment. But I’m thrilled that I actually scored 294 runs rather than the six I didn’t get,” said Cook.

England are in the driver’s seat with India already a wicket down in their second innings and two more days to go but Cook is not ready to take things for granted.

“There’s a lot of hard work to do. But if we are patient like we have been and bowl like we know we can do,we’ll put India under a lot of pressure.

“We’re favourites but it doesn’t make you win. The wicket is still playing well,you could see that how people got in so it can’t be that bad. But if we keep doing our basics well,I’m sure we will create nine opportunities in two days.”

England didn’t score quickly yesterday but the opener put the blame on the slowness of the track.

“The old ball made it quite hard to score. There were quite defensive fieldsand the pitch was a little bit slower to dominate. I don’t think anyone found it easy to hit through the line.

“But there’s such a long time left in the game. When you bowl a side out in two sessions,you can bat as long as you want. We knew the wicket wasn’t going to get any better and we wanted to make the most of that by batting when it was at its’ best,” Cook said.

Giving credit to England’s batting coach and his mentor Graham Gooch,Cook said,”As a side,we’ve got six double-hundreds since 2010,which is a tribute to the way we bat. He’s quite happy,quite proud. But I’m sure he’ll be throwing at me in the morning put an innings to bed and move on.”

Cook showed admirable patience and stamina to bat for 13 hours and he said he wasn’t too tired.

“That’s why you do the fitness work,to allow you to do it,and then the mental concentration is something you pick up over time. I felt a little bit leggy,more tired last night but today I am fine.”