Ollie Pope smashes his 7th century in Tests: Key stats
England stand-in Test skipper Ollie Pope hammered a fine century on Day 1 of the third and final Test against Sri Lanka at the Kennington Oval, London on Friday. Pope was unscathed on 103 from 103 balls with the help of 13 fours and two sixes. Only 41.1 overs were managed in the day with bad light forcing stumps. Here are further details.
Pope shines with a knock of an unbeaten 103
Pope got to his ton off 102 balls with a solid four off Asitha Fernando in the 44th over. It has been some knock from Pope, who looked in fine touch. He didn't rush through and there was a balance in his approach. Pope shared a telling 95-run stand alongside Ben Duckett, who hit 86 runs. Harry Brook is at the crease alongside Pope.
Pope makes his history with 7th ton
Pope's 103* has been laced with 13 fours and two sixes. His strike rate is 100. Pope is now the first batter in history to get his first seven Test tons against different opponents. He has raced to 2,823 runs at 35.28 (50s: 13). As per ESPNcricinfo, Pope has surpassed 1,500 runs at home. He owns 1,559 runs at 38.02 (100s: 4, 50s: 8).
Pope gets his bat to talk finally in this series
Versus Sri Lanka, Pope now has 133 runs from five innings at 33.25. Before this, his scores in this series read 6, 6, 1 and 17.
Second-fastest hundred by an England Test captain
As per Cricbuzz, Pope now has the second-fastest hundred by an England Test captain (off 102 balls), after Graham Gooch, who had got there in 95 balls against India at Lord's in 1990.
