It was a unique Friday for Ollie Pope. Since becoming England’s captain at the beginning of this series against Sri Lanka in place of the injured Ben Stokes, he had scored a mere 30 runs in four innings. However, on Friday, he came back strongly after hitting his first hundred as England’s captain at the Oval. When light prohibited any further play, Pope had amassed a not-out score of 103 from just 103 balls and England were comfortably placed on 221-3.
This marked Pope’s seventh hundred in Test cricket. Interestingly enough, each one of them came against different opponents – an unprecedented feat in the 147-year-old history of test cricket.
Winning the toss should have worked out better for Sri Lanka as it was overcast and there was some greenish hue on the pitch but they couldn’t make use of anything because they were already trailing 2-0 in this three-match series under Dhananjaya de Silva’s captaincy.
Additionally, there was another century-making opportunity missed by Ben Duckett who scored only 86 runs. This was not his first time to do so.
But Duckett admired his captain for disregarding what Michael Vaughan had said, the former England captain, suggesting as if Pope would not excel at both batting at position three and leading simultaneously.
Popey has been trending lately and it shouldn’t have been so – Duckett said after end of day’s play.
He following repeated edging from Pope was able to hit a flawless hundred which is an extraordinary achievement on Surrey ground where he has bagged his 12th first class century.
Sri Lanka’s only consolation was when Joe Root was dismissed just before tea for just 13 runs.
Just days ago, Root scored two centuries leading England to claim victory over Bangladesh by 190 runs thus establishing himself as a new record holder for most Test centuries in England (34).
This season England swept West Indies in three matches so that they can achieve their first home test clean sweep since 2004 under Vaughan achieving seven successive wins.
Just like that, Duckett was able to get into his rhythm by playing beautiful cover drives on consecutive deliveries bowled by Milan Rathnayake.
In a literal sense, this was an entirely different narrative for makeshift opening batsman Dan Lawrence, who is primarily known for being a middle-order batsman.
With the absence of injured Zak Crawley, Lawrence had no choice other than facing the new ball in this series.
He was on just five runs before he found himself tangled up against a short ball from Kumara and handed out an easy catch to gully.
Pope at number three had earlier scored a century against West Indies at Trent Bridge back in July but cut off his mark with some style after smashing four off Rathnayake’s loose delivery and then taking six via hook off Kumara.
Meanwhile Duckett aged 29 years managed to finish off with a rapid xii from mere 48 deliveries which was inclusive of 7 fours
To continue playing was perceived as very dangerous even though there were floodlights on, hence they had to stop playing due to bad light when England was on 76 runs with one wicket down after bowling for 15 overs. Also, the rain came down and this match could only be played again at 1410 GMT time.
It wasn’t long before Duckett cut Kumara for a six over fine leg and then hit him very high with an upper-cut way beyond third man as Sri Lanka’s four pacers were struggling to bowl any challenging line or length.
Duckett was only 14 runs away from earning just his fourth hundred in 26 Tests when he tried a scoop shot off Rathnayake which was caught by wicketkeeper Dinesh Chandimal while England were at 140 for two wickets.
Duckett stated, “When you play like that for a period you can’t really kick yourself but I’ve obviously missed out on a Test hundred”.
“Oh it could be my learning day but it is a shot I have been planning to do in Test cricket for a long time” he said as he prepared to hit it.
Pope, who is 26 years old had a lucky top-edged six off Kumara therefore it seemed like Root was hitting fine leg although his hook was caught by Vishwa Fernando slipping over wet grass.
Pope was 84 not out at tea and went on to his first Test century at the Oval when he square drove Asitha Fernando stylishly for 13th four in102 balls alongside 2 sixes also.
So far this would be the first time anyone has gotten all their first seven Test centuries against different teams while playing at this level since Pope having played 49 matches at such heights.
