Before England’s third Test match against Sri Lanka at Kennington Oval, stand-in captain Ollie Pope was under a lot of strain. Though the Three Lions were able to win the opening two Test matches of the series, he received criticism for his batting and there were questions about whether being captain put more pressure on the young player.
Pope got things going and helped England score 325 runs despite receiving very little assistance from the opposite side. Former cricket player Michael Atherton praised his knock, saying that it was a “courageous innings” despite some criticism.
To silence all the doubters, Ollie Pope struck for 153 runs in the opening over of the third Test, though.
He faced considerable scrutiny before entering the game. It was a brave innings in my opinion because there had been talk about his lack of runs since taking over as captain. “There was the occasional shaky shot, but that is inevitable in the conditions,” I said. He performed quite surprisingly, in my opinion, so props to him.
After the early shocks on Day 2, Sri Lanka recovers nicely.
Sri Lanka, meanwhile, orchestrated a strong batting comeback. Similar to Pope, Pathum Nissanka had a solid start at bat, scoring a half-century, but he had very little assistance. Later, Kamindu Mendis and captain Dhananjaya de Silva took charge of the game with half-centuries each. Day 2’s third session saw England bowl spin for a considerable amount of time due to poor light, which benefited the Lankan hitters.
Also Read: ‘It’s just one of those things that’s frustrating’ – Olly Stone on England having to forced bowl spin because of poor lighting
Day 2 saw Sri Lanka score 211/5, however they are now behind by 114 runs. Although they would welcome the opportunity to lead, it won’t be simple. The team management has shown great admiration for Kamindu and has discussed moving him up the order in the upcoming series.
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