Captain Alastair Cook benefits from 'butter fingered' Indian fielders

LONDON: Besides suicidal batting tendencies, India's cricketers were today afflicted with 'butter fingers' dropping easy catches from which England captain Alastair Cook benefitted in the fifth and final cricket Test.

The England captain was lucky to survive a plumb leg before off Bhuvneshwar Kumar's bowling on an individual score of nine on the opening day yesterday. The delivery was crashing onto the middle stump but Australian umpire Paul Reiffel felt otherwise.

Cook then displayed the doggedness to complete another half-century before he was again rewarded by the profligacy of the India's slip-cordon.

At the personal score of 65, fast bowler Varun Aaron produced a beauty as he came round the stumps to induce an uppish drive which went straight towards Murali Vijay at first slip, who grassed it as the ball popped out off his palms. Vijay showed poor technique while catching the ball as he charged at it without letting it come at him.

Cook was dropped yet again on 70, this time the culprit was Ajinkya Rahane at first slip and the hapless bowler turned out to be Ravichandran Ashwin.

The England skipper played a cut shot close to his body and the ball travelled at great speed towards Rahane, who failed to show ideal reflexes required to latch onto such a chance.

But Vijay finally made amends when he took a low catch at first slip off Aaron's bowling when Cook played one away from his body at a score of 79.

Cook had been a gainer during the third Test at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton when Ravindra Jadeja floored a dolly off debutant Pankaj Singh's bowling.

An out-of-sorts Cook was batting on 15 then and roared back to form with a 95, which experts feel, was the turning point of England's revival in the series.