Pope, Woakes lead recovery

OLLIE Pope and Chris Woakes both scored valuable fifties on their return to Test cricket as England recovered from a top-order collapse to build a lead over India at the Oval on Friday.

Pope made 81 on his Surrey home ground and all-rounder Woakes exactly 50 before England was dismissed for 290 in reply to India’s first innings 191 on the second day of the fourth Test.

India then held firm to be 43-0 in their second innings at stumps, a deficit of 56 runs.

Rohit Sharma was 20 not out and KL Rahul 22 not out, with this intriguing five-match series level at 1-1.

England were struggling at 62-5 early on Friday after paceman pacem Umesh Yadav, Yad playing his first Test in nearly fi a year, removed C Craig Overton and Dawid Malan in a return of 3-76 in 19 overs.

But Pope, only recalled because Jos Buttler missed the match on paternity leave, revived the innings during partnerships of 89 and 71 with Jonny Bairstow (37) and Moeen Ali (35) respectively.