Ashes 2017/18, 4th Test: Hits and misses

Hit: Alastair Cook

Former England skipper Alastair Cook finally came good at Melbourne, after a string of poor performances, as he scored 244 to guide the visitors to the first-innings total of 491.

In his 10 innings prior to the one at the MCG, Cook had scored just 144 runs.

Cook, who became the first England opener to carry his bat since Michael Atherton against New Zealand at Christchurch in 1997, leapfrogged Mahela Jayawardene, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Brian Lara to claim the sixth spot on the list of all-time leading run-scorers in Test cricket.

Cook scored his 32nd Test ton and became the first England batsman to register eleven 150-plus scores in the longest format of the game.

The knock that ended the 33-year-old's barren run in the ongoing Ashes series, was his biggest against Australia and the third biggest knock of his career.