Alastair Cook hailed England's "calmer" display as his record-equalling century helped the side to a dominant lead after day one of the second Test against Pakistan. Opener Cook (105) scored a 29th Test century in his 50th game as captain, equalling the record of Australia great Don Bradman.
>Report: Root, Cook hit tons to lead England past 300
The skipper and his deputy Joe Root (141 not out) led by example, with England reaching 314-4 at stumps on Friday at Old Trafford. "The way we played was much calmer. We've set the game up," Cook said. "I've been in good nick all through the summer, with Essex as well. I've not quite got a good score for England this year. I know this is not a massive score but it's nice to get a hundred.
"We're happy at the moment playing four seamers and a spinner. Just because we had one bad performance, I don't think you should change everything. We are a comfortable side playing that system, and I didn't think we should change it."
On equalling Bradman's record of 29 Test centuries, Cook said: "I can't really compare that, when he did it in half the games or even less... so it's just nice to get past 28 [hundreds]."
'Mature innings'
Root added: "The way [Cook] played was a really mature innings, which is what you expect from your captain. We've bounced back as a batting unit in this Test match. The way we responded is really good leading into the rest of the game."
Leg-spinner Yasir Shah took 10 wickets as Pakistan >won the first Test at Lord's but it was a different story in Manchester, wicketless in a return of 0 for 111 in 31 overs.
"Sometimes the expectation does put you under pressure," explained Pakistan's bowling coach Mushtaq Ahmed. On a first-day pitch the margin of error for a leg-spinner against good players like Joe Root and Cook is very small.
"I always believe as a good bowler you have to bowl good overs against good players to get them out. He didn't do that today but he will come out [to bowl] tomorrow, he's a strong guy."
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