2017 Ashes, Alastair Cook
Cricket - Ashes test match - Australia v England - MCG, Melbourne, Australia, December 28, 2017. England's Alastair Cook reacts as he walks off the ground at the end of the third day of the fourth Ashes cricket test match. Reuters / David Gray

Veteran opener Alastair Cook remains unbeaten on 244, the highest score by a visiting batsman at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), as England took charge of the Ashes Boxing Day Test on Thursday. Chasing Australia's first-innings total of 327, England went into stumps at 491/9 at the end of Day 3.

Having claimed a lead of 164 runs, Cook (244 not out) and James Anderson (0 not out) will look to extend their last-wicket stand before their visitors have a crack at the Aussies on Friday. Cook and Anderson have added 18 runs for the tenth-wicket after Stuart Broad (56) perished in the final hour's play. Cook and Broad added exactly 100 runs for the ninth-wicket -- an invaluable partnership that allowed England to seize the advantage.

In prior Tests, Australia's bowlers have made quick work of the English tail. However, resilient efforts from Chris Woakes (26), Broad and Anderson helped Cook extend England's lead beyond 150 runs.

2017 Ashes: Alastair Cook breaks MCG record

Cook broke the previous record set by West Indies legend Sir Vivian Richards, who blasted 208 runs from just 245 balls during the MCG Test in Dec. 1984. The southpaw is 50 runs shy of his career-best of 294, which he scored against India at Birmingham in 2011. Cook brought up his fifth career double-century and first since Oct. 2015 against Pakistan at Abu Dhabi.

After the day's play, Cook admitted that he had to produce a big knock to avoid getting dropped for the fifth and final Ashes Test at the Sydney.

"I always feel I have the backing of the selectors, but you have to deliver the goods. I hadn't done that on this tour. I would have been entitled to be dropped. On Wednesday night, it felt like one of the more emotional hundreds I have made, especially from where I'd been on this tour," said Cook, who has made 32 Test tons. It meant a lot, then today I was quite proud to back it up. To get a real big one for the team was very important," Cook told the media on Thursday.

Steve Smith's Australians have already reclaimed the Ashes urn with comprehensive wins at Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, to seal the five-Test series with a 3-0 advantage. The 2017 Ashes will culminate with the fifth and final Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) starting Jan. 4.