England humbles India

OLLIE Pope combined with Tom Hartley to pull off a heist in Hyderabad where England humbled India in the opening test yesterday, displaying their entertaining brand of cricket that has injected new life into the format.

England’s thrilling 28-run victory, that came in an extended final session on the penultimate day at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, will go down as one of their finest away wins ever.

Under captain Ben Stokes and head coach Brendon ‘Baz’ McCullum, England have championed a fearless brand of cricket that puts entertainment over outcome over the last couple of years.

Their ‘Bazball’ approach faced its toughest test against India, who have not lost a test series at home since 2012.

India had lost only three of their previous 46 home tests and, for the first two days of the match, England looked ill-equipped to change that trend as they conceded a huge lead of 190.

To make it worse for the tourists, their lead spinner Jack Leach was hobbling having hurt his knee twice during fielding.

England vice captain Pope then conjured up arguably the best knock by a touring batter in India, smashing an epic 196 to propel England to 420 in the second innings.

The 26-year-old scooped and swept with impunity during his six-and-a-half-hour masterclass on how to smother spin on turning tracks on the Indian sub-continent.

“I haven’t seen a better exhibition of sweeping and reverse sweeping ever in these conditions against that quality of bowling,” India coach Rahul Dravid said.

Pope’s knock, the only hundred in the match, allowed England to set India a tricky target of 231 before Hartley took over.