Openers erase England's sole blemish

After witnessing Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook grind India down with a 186-run stand, Scyld Berry writes in the Daily Telegraph that they provide England with that vital ingredient of a great team - a redoubtable opening combination.

Strauss and Cook are not an opening pair to keep opening bowlers awake and fearful through the night as Haynes and Greenidge did, and Hayden, and Sanath Jayasuriya of the third pair on the list. Strauss and Cook seek to wear down and accumulate, to take the shine off the new ball and allow their more gifted middle-order team-mates to cash in. Their style is probably in their natures; it is certainly in the nature of English cricket that opening pairs have more to cope with than their counterparts overseas.

In the Guardian, Vic Marks describes Cook shrugging off a brief dip in form to make another big hundred.

There are signs of evolution in Cook's batting. Increasingly he cracks the ball through extra-cover, hitherto a bit of a no-go area. Off the back foot he hits in that direction with surprising power and a vertical bat. Moreover the cover drive now looks a much more natural shot for him. After about four hours at the crease he indulges himself with it.

"Imagine scaling Everest only to discover the final leg of the climb was to be made via an escalator," is how Martin Samuel describes England's nearly-confirmed ascent to No. 1 in the Daily Mail.