1st Test: Ollie Pope’s unbeaten 148 pulls England out of trouble; take lead of 126 runs over India

Hyderabad: Top-order batter Ollie Pope slammed his fifth Test century and first in India to pull England out of trouble and help them take a lead of 126 runs at the end of the third day of the first Test at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here on Saturday.
The day began with England facing the prospect of conceding a lead of 200 runs, but Joe Root’s 4-79 meant India added only 15 runs to their overnight total and were all out for 436 in their first innings.

Pope, who made just one in England’s first innings, stood up amidst a fightback from India to hit an unbeaten 148, laced with 17 boundaries, which has led England to 316/6 in 77 overs, the first time a visiting team has scored 300 in a Test match second innings in India since Nagpur 2012.

With the pitch going slower and slower, it meant the batters had time to adjust their strokeplay against the bowlers. Pope hugely benefitted from it by blunting the spinners with good use of his feet and wrists, survived a fiery Jasprit Bumrah spell, and executed the conventional sweeps and reverse sweeps to good effect to play one of his best knocks in Test cricket.

Apart from Pope, the opening pair of Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett set the tone for England’s much better showing in the second innings with a fine 45-run opening stand. After that, Pope shared a 112-run stand with Ben Foakes (34) and had a reprieve at 110 when Axar Patel dropped his catch off Ravindra Jadeja.

The final session began with Foakes and Pope getting boundaries quickly, with India burning a review for an LBW against the latter. India tried all five bowlers, but they were unable to separate Pope and Foakes. Pope eventually got his century by taking three runs through deep mid-wicket off Ravindra Jadeja, with the Hyderabad crowd giving him a standing ovation.

Pope continued to whip and reverse-sweep at will, and after Axar dropped his catch at backward square leg on 110, he back to punching, reverse-sweeping and even lapping over the keeper and slips for boundaries. India finally had a breakthrough when Axar got one to keep low and skid past Foakes’ attempted cut to rattle the off-stump.

Pope was having fun -– lapping over the keeper’s head, flicking sweetly, while Rehan Ahmed was comfortable in punching and pulling the spinners’ for boundaries.

With the second new ball to be made available for India after two overs on day four, the hosts will be aiming to wrap up England’s innings as quickly as possible and try to keep the lead below 150.

For now, Pope and England proved on day three that England weren’t any pushovers and would eye to take the lead past 200, which would prove to be a tricky proposition for India considering the wear and tear a day four pitch would have.

Brief scores: England 246 and 316/6 in 77 overs (Ollie Pope 148 not out; Ben Duckett 47; Jasprit Bumrah 2-29, Ravichandran Ashwin 2-63) lead India 436 all out in 121 overs (Ravindra Jadeja 87, K.L Rahul 86; Joe Root 4-79, Rehan Ahmed 2-105) by 126 runs

–IANS