Centuries in debut & farewell Tests: Alastair Cook fifth batsman to achieve rare feat

NEW DELHI: Playing his last international match of a glittering career, England batting legend and former captain Alastair Cook on Monday added another feather to his cap. By scoring a hundred in his farewell Test against India at the Kennington Oval in London, Cook became only the fifth batsman ever to score a century both in his debut and his final Test.
Coincidently, Cook scored a hundred (104*) on his Test debut against the same opponent, India, in Nagpur in 2006.He is the first Englishman to achieve the rare feat and the third overall to do so against the same opposition. Incredibly, in all 3 instances, the last match was played at the same venue, the Kennington Oval in London.
This was the 33rd Test ton for Cook, who is England's leading run-scorer with 12,472 runs in 161 matches in the longest format of the game. The England opener missed out on a century in the first innings, when he played on to a Jasprit Bumrah delivery on 71. But he made no such mistake in his final international innings and reached the milestone off 210 balls with the help of eight fours.

On 76, Cook went past Kumar Sangakkara as the highest-scoring left-handed batsman in Tests, and will finish as the fifth-highest run-scorer overall, after Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis and Rahul Dravid. Cook's final innings ended with a majestic 147 off 286 balls, which included 14 boundaries.
The last batsman to score a ton in his first and last Tests was former India captain Mohammad Azharuddin. Azhar started his career with a 110 against England in Kolkata in 1984 and ended with a 102 against South Africa in Bengalore in 2000.
Three Australians had achieved the feat before Azharuddin -- Greg Chappell, William Ponsford and Reginald Duff.
Chappell scored 108 on debut against England in Perth in 1970 and finished off his 14-year career with 182 against Pakistan in Sydney in 1984.
Ponsford's 29-Test career started with a 110 against England in Sydney in 1924 and he bid adieu with a career-best 266 against the same opponent at the Kennington Oval in London in 1934.
Duff scored 104 (Melbourne in 1902) and 146 (London in 1905) in his first and last Tests respectively, both against England. Interestingly, these were the only two centuries Duff managed to score in his 22-Test career which lasted just three years.