Ollie Pope becomes first batter in 147 years of Test history to register unique record

English captain Ollie Pope became the first player in Test cricket’s history to score his first seven centuries against seven different opponents. 

He achieved this feat after bringing up his maiden Test ton at his home ground – The Oval in London on Friday (September 6) against Sri Lanka during the third Test of the three-match series.

Pope, who had previously scored a ton each against South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan, Ireland, India and West Indies, hit his seventh ton against the Lankans. This was also Pope’s first Test century as a skipper. He is the stand-in skipper of the English side in the absence of regular captain Ben Stokes who was ruled out of the series due to an injury.

Pope, who plays for Surrey in the County Championships, has a first-class average of over 80 at the Oval, his home ground. At the start of the match, his average was 80, which is the highest for any batter at one ground since 2000 in more than 40 first-class innings.

Pope had managed a mere 30 runs in four previous innings since succeeding the injured Ben Stokes as skipper at the start of this series.

But when bad light ended play for the day Pope was a run-a-ball 103 not out, with England well-placed on 221-3.

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.

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.

t 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.

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.

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.

- Additional inputs from AFP

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