SOUTHAMPTON: England captain Alastair Cook urged his side to show the same “relentless” approach that characterised their 266-run win over India in the third Test at Southampton when the series continues at Old Trafford next week.

“It’s a very small step,” he said. “It’s only one win. We had as good a game as you can have -- that’s what the turnaround is,” Cook added.

“We got greedy in the first innings. When you do that, you start getting ahead of the game and can dictate it –– and that’s what we did.” Now the challenge is to do it all again in Manchester.

“We were relentless, we never let India off the hook at any stage,” said Cook. “It takes a lot of skill and determination to do that. Now everyone knows what it’s like, the challenge is ‘can we repeat that at Old Trafford, and try to win the series?’”

Meanwhile, after the ICC verdict on Friday, pacer James Anderson will head to his Old Trafford home ground for the fourth Test against India hoping to close in on Ian Botham’s record for the most Test wickets by an England bowler.Anderson had been facing a ban of up to four Tests but Lewis’s decision means he is free to play in the rest of the five-match India series, all square at 1-1 after England’s dominant 266-run win at Southampton on Thursday.

England will be hugely relieved that fast-medium bowler Anderson, their series-leading wicket-taker, and named man-of-the-match for his seven for 77 at the Ageas Bowl in the team’s first Test win for nearly a year, has been cleared. Now the 32-year-old fast-medium bowler could become England’s leading all-time Test wicket-taker before the end of the season.

He currently has 371 Test wickets, 12 shy of legendary all-rounder Botham’s tally of 383.The fourth Test at Old Trafford starts this coming Thursday, August 7, with the series finale at The Oval later this month.

Meanwhile Dhoni refused to confirm rumours emerging from India that the tourists had now gained access to previously unseen video footage that supported their assertion that Anderson had engaged in threatening behaviour towards Jadeja in the Trent Bridge pavilion.

“I am not aware,” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 2nd, 2014