Sam Cook took four wickets and hit the second-highest score in England Lions’ second innings but the tourists slid to defeat against a Cricket Australia XI in the first match of their tour of Australia.
Cook, for so long inexplicably overlooked for higher international honours, showed his supreme mastery of the Kookaburra ball on the second day at Shaw Park in Brisbane with figures of 4/15.
His showing, that included all four of the first Australian wickets to fall with just 18 runs on the board, helped the Lions bowl out their hosts for 176, giving them a first-innings advantage of 47.
The game did, however, remain evenly contested when the Lions were dismissed in their second dig for 213.
That was in spite of Cook’s 23 off 19 balls at the end of the English innings, that included two sixes hit from the off-spin of Raf MacMillan.
Allied with his four wickets, that made Cook one of only two visiting batters to pass 20 in that innings, but the Lions’ total gave the Australian XI an achievable 261 to chase for victory.
Despite another tight showing from Cook, who conceded just 35 runs from 15 second-innings overs, Tim Ward’s 115 guided the hosts to a six-wicket win.
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