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To raise a century that mattered, Ollie Pope planted his front foot, focused his sights on the ball, puffed up his cheeks and cut to the boundary.
Pope, filling in for injured captain Ben Stokes in this series, achieved his seventh Test century against as many different opposition teams in a first for the format despite four prior failures. Pope has come under more scrutiny because of that position alone, but Stokes’s knowing nod as he celebrated the milestone from the dressing room balcony said it all—he was acknowledging a defiant innings that was exactly what he wanted.
Shortly after, with Pope undefeated on 103 from just 103 balls, the umpires again ordered the players off the pitch due to poor light, to a chorus of jeers and tepid applause from a nearly full Kia Oval. Stumpwork was called shortly before 6.30pm with England at 221 for 3, Harry Brook the other batsman not out on 8. This time, the decision was decisive.
Play had been stopped for almost three hours earlier. It was debatable whether the rain or the darkness of the skies prevented players from playing for an extended period of time, but when they did return, Ben Duckett and Pope made sure that runs were falling, scoring 95 runs together for the second wicket.
Before he was dismissed in the afternoon, Duckett struck an impressive 86 off just 79 balls. Joe Root then fell, managing a meagre 13 off 48 balls. However, Pope had everything covered following the series’ scores of 6, 6, 1, and 17.
After the first pause, which lasted two hours and fifty minutes during the lunch break, he and Duckett made up lost time.
Duckett’s misplaced ramp off Lahiru Kumara bounced just inside the boundary rope at deep third, but it didn’t matter for England since he vanished into the crowd instead of clearing fine leg as he seemed to have intended.
The shot that had been so fruitful for him and entertaining for the crowd proved to be his downfall as Duckett attempted to scoop a slower delivery from Milan Rathnayake only for wicketkeeper Dinesh Chandimal to pouch a simple catch. He survived an appeal for leg before wicket two balls later on the umpire’s call after Kumara struck him high on the back thigh.
Following a comparatively quiet phase that saw just four runs in as many overs and corresponded with Angelo Mathews’ entrance, Pope struck once more, blasting Mathews through the covers for four. His heart in his mouth, he then gambled another boundary between a slip and a gully.
Root was caught at fine leg by Vishwa Fernando to give Kumara his second wicket but England remained in total control.