Ollie Pope’s unbeaten century, England’s struggle continues

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Hyderabad. With the help of a brilliant and fighting century from Ollie Pope (148 not out), England have taken a lead of 126 runs by scoring 316 runs for six wickets in their second innings till stumps on the third day of the first cricket test against India on Saturday.

India’s first innings was limited to 436 runs in the morning and it got a huge lead of 190 runs. England, which scored 246 runs in the first innings, performed better in the second innings and faced the Indian spinners bravely. Pope scored his fifth century.

Today’s two sessions were in the name of England. After the first session, England lost only one wicket in the third session also. Olly Pope scored a brilliant century and now he is moving towards a big score. England’s lead has increased to 126 and if they reach 200 then this match can be interesting on the fourth day.

Ollie Pope hit 17 fours in his unbeaten innings of 148 runs in 208 balls. He added 112 runs in a crucial sixth-wicket partnership with Ben Foakes to rescue England from a critical position of 163 for 5. Fox played bravely and scored 34 runs in 81 balls with the help of two fours. Pope has added 41 runs in the unbeaten partnership for the seventh wicket with Rehan Ahmed. Rehan is at the crease after scoring 16 runs in 31 balls with the help of two fours.

In the match, being played at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, India were put on the back foot by England’s aggressive play in the morning session. But after lunch, he bounced back with a fascinating session, taking four big wickets and getting back on top of the game. For England, Ollie Pope played a key role by scoring an unbeaten 67 and disappointing India by reaching 148 runs in the final session.

At the beginning of the second session, Bumrah appealed for LBW out against Ben Duckett, which if India had reviewed, they would have got success. Pope continued his good work by hitting two fours off Ashwin, followed by Duckett with two fours off Bumrah. But the fast bowler got the last laugh when he looped the inswinger back in and tried to send a cartwheel ride past the off-stump away from Duckett’s body. The crowd went wild as Bumrah celebrated dismissing Duckett.

Bumrah was at his lethal best – reversing the ball both ways and also bowling the slower ball to almost dismiss Pope. Eventually, his inswinger trapped Joe Root LBW, opening the way for India to take the lead. Pope and Jonny Bairstow, who took on Bumrah well by showing the full face of the bat and taking leg-stump guard, looked comfortable hitting boundaries. In the 28th over, a ball from Jadeja hit the outer edge of Bairstow. For the next ball, Bairstow thought it would spin and put his arms on his shoulders. He was stunned when the ball came in and hit the off-stump.

Pope completed his 12th Test half-century in just 54 balls by hitting Ashwin’s full toss ball over midwicket for a four. Troubled by the sweeps of Crawley and Duckett, Ashwin came back and bowled tirelessly to regain his line. He finally got his reward by swinging the ball past the bat and blasting away captain Ben Stokes’ off-stump. This was a phase when India did not concede a single boundary in the last 65 balls of the session and tightened their grip on the match. But after tea, England fought hard and stopped the Indian bowlers from dominating.

Earlier, Root and Mark Wood started the morning with eight quiet overs to keep Jadeja and Axar in check. As soon as Leach, who was suffering from a left knee injury, came into the attack, Axar took full advantage of his overpitched balls by hitting back-to-back cover drives for boundaries. But Root bounced back to LBW Jadeja on an off-break ball that was not taking much turn, making the left-handed batsman the third Indian batsman to be dismissed in the innings after crossing 80.

On the very next ball, Root bowled Bumrah with an off-break delivery from round the wicket. Akshar went on the backfoot to cut Rehan, but the leg-break delivery remained low to the batsman and hit the stumps, ending India’s innings.

Brief scores: England 246/6 in 77 overs 316/6 (Ollie Pope 148 not out; Ben Duckett 47; Jasprit Bumrah 2-29, Ravichandran Ashwin 2-93) India 436 (Ravindra Jadeja 87, KL Rahul 86; Joe Root 4-79) , Rehan Ahmed 2-105)

–IANS

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