Stephen Cook (cricketer)
Stephen Craig Cook (born 29 November 1982 in Johannesburg) is a South African Test cricketer for the Proteas, the son of former Test player Jimmy Cook. He is a classic right-handed opening batsman and very occasional right-arm medium bowler formerly for Gauteng following his debut in 2001, and for Lions since 2004. In 2010 he scored 390 runs in a single innings, surpassing several South African and international first-class cricket records, and was included in the South Africa A squad.[1][2] On 18 January 2016 he was added to South Africa's Test squad, and became the 6th South African (and 100th Test player) to score a century on debut during the first day of the fourth Test against England.[3][4]
Career
Cook was born in November 1982 in Johannesburg, Transvaal, son of former Test cricketer Jimmy Cook, himself an "exceptional opening batsman" with over 20,000 first-class runs.[5]
Record innings
Cook holds the record highest score in South African first-class cricket – 390 from 648 balls on 25 October 2009 against the Warriors – which was also the team's first triple century.[6][7] Cook had previously been a spectator to his father's own 313 and Daryll Cullinan's previous-record 337, and commented later that "When my brother and I used to play cricket in the garden, there was one score neither of us could ever go past and that was dad's. Neither of us could ever score more than 313."[8] Cook's score is also the twelfth-highest and fourth-longest in first-class cricket history – taking over 14 hours to complete – and was part of a record-breaking 365-run partnership with Thami Tsolekile, also a record for South African first-class cricket.[1]
Test centuries
See also
Notes
References
England