Ollie Pope, England’s top-order batsman, delivered a game-changing performance in the team’s just-finished Test series opener against India at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.
Pope, who died after making just one run in the first innings, rebounded in the second innings, achieving his sixth Test century.
The right-handed hitter fell short of a well-deserved double century, finishing on 196.
His batting prowess helped the visitors set a difficult 231-run goal for the Men in Blue in the fourth innings.
On Day 4, Sunday, January 28, England scored a memorable 28-run victory over India, who were out for 202.
In a video released on social media by England Cricket, Pope discussed his knock:
Guys are telling me I won’t play a better knock, which is just great. I was quite pleased with that. I’ve been out for seven months.
So to return and perform something on such a large scale in India is head and shoulders beyond anything I’ve done before.
That’s a fantastic Indian team that we beat on home turf under their conditions.
Getting back from where we were is an incredible accomplishment.
Probably among our finest, if not the best.
Ollie Pope was widely praised for his batting effort in the Hyderabad Test.
He was selected Player of the Match as England seized a 1-0 advantage in the five-game series.
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We all had a fairly clear approach – Ollie Pope on England’s batting strategy
Ollie Pope also praised England openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett for relieving pressure on him with their counter-attacking strategy at the top.
He also stated that the batting unit maintained a consistent approach throughout the game, which included using the reverse sweep as a defensive strategy on the spin-friendly surface.
We all had a fairly clear strategy. The two lads on top were fantastic.
They calmed my nerves there. I observed the reverse sweeps and shoots from the ground.
That helped relieve some of my stress. We mentioned we’d utilise our reverse sweep as a defensive occasionally because it spins so much.
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