Finance
At the close of the 3rd day of the first Test at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here on Saturday, England had taken a 126-run lead thanks to a brilliant innings from top-order batsman Ollie Pope, who hammered his fifth century in Test cricket and his first in India. England started the day with the possibility of losing a 200-run advantage, but India only added 15 runs to their overnight total and were all out for 436 in their opening innings with to Joe Root’s 4-79.
Pope, who scored just one in England’s opening innings, rose to the occasion amid an Indian comeback to smash an undefeated 148 complete with 17 boundaries, leading England to 316/6 in 77 overs for 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.
After two overs on day four, India will get access to the second new ball. The hosts’ goal is to finish England’s innings as soon as possible while maintaining an advantage of less than 150.
For the time being, Pope and England showed on day three that they were no pushovers and intended to go above 200. Given the wear and tear a day four pitch would have, India would find this to be a difficult ask.
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
Source:IANS
