It was a special Friday for Ollie Pope. He had managed a mere 30 runs in four previous innings since succeeding the injured Ben Stokes as England skipper at the start of the series against Sri Lanka. But Ollie Pope returned to form in style on his Oval home ground with a first hundred as England captain on Friday’s opening day of the third Test against Sri Lanka. When bad light ended play for the day Pope was a run-a-ball 103 not out, with England well-placed on 221-3.
It was Pope’s seventh seventh century in Test cricket. Interestingly, each of his first seven centuries came against different opponents – a first in the 147-year history of Test cricket.
Sri Lanka, already 2-0 down in this three-match series, failed to make the most of overcast conditions and a green-tinged pitch after captain Dhananjaya de Silva won the toss.
And England should arguably have had another century-maker on Friday, with opener Ben Duckett, not for the first time, giving his wicket away after making 86.
Duckett praised his skipper for ignoring the comments from the likes of former England captain Michael Vaughan, who questioned whether Pope could cope with the competing demands of leadership and batting at No 3.
“It shouldn’t be the case but there has been quite a lot of noise around Popey in the last couple of weeks,” Duckett told reporters after stumps.
“To block that out and score an incredible hundred was so good,” he added following Pope’s 12th first-class hundred on his Surrey home ground.
A rare bright spot for struggling Sri Lanka was the dismissal of Joe Root for 13 shortly before tea.
Root was fresh from two hundreds in a 190-run win at Lord’s where he set a new England record of 34 Test centuries.
England, who swept the West Indies 3-0 earlier this season, are chasing their first home Test campaign clean sweep since 2004, when Vaughan oversaw seven successive wins.
Duckett was soon into his stride, with the left-hander cover-driving fours off successive Milan Rathnayake deliveries.
It was a different story for makeshift opener Dan Lawrence, a middle-order batsman by trade.
Lawrence was forced to face the new ball this series in the absence of the injured Zak Crawley.
He had made just five when he got in a tangle against a short-pitched Lahiru Kumara delivery and top-edged a simple catch to gully.
Number three Pope, who made a hundred against the West Indies at Trent Bridge in July, got off the mark in style by cutting a loose ball from fast bowler Rathnayake for four and then hooked a six off Kumara.
The 29-year-old Duckett, meanwhile, completed a speedy fifty off just 48 balls, including seven fours.
Even with the floodlights on, the umpires decided it was too dangerous to continue and stopped play for bad light, with England 76-1 off 15 overs. Rain then fell as well and the match did not resume until 1410 GMT.
It was not long before Duckett ramped Kumara for six over fine leg and uppercut him high over third ma, with all of Sri Lanka’s four-man pace attack struggling to maintain a challenging line and length.
But Duckett, in sight of just his fourth century in 26 Tests, was out when he miscued an extravagant scoop off Rathnayake to wicketkeeper Dinesh Chandimal, with England 140-2.
“When you play like that for a period you can’t really kick yourself but I’ve obviously missed out on a Test hundred there,” said Duckett.
“It might be a learning day for me but it’s a shot I’ve been thinking of playing in Test cricket for a long time. It felt like the right option.”
The 26-year-old Pope was fortunate with a top-edged six off Kumara but the persevering paceman did have Root hooking to fine leg, where Vishwa Fernando held onto the catch despite slipping on the wet turf.
Surrey favourite Pope, 84 not out at tea, went to his first Test hundred at the Oval, when he stylishly square-drove Asitha Fernando for his 13th four in 102 balls, also including two sixes.
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In the process Pope, playing his 49th match at this level, became the first player to score his first seven Test centuries against different teams.
