Pope, Woakes keep England ahead
Both add valuable 50s to help England reach 290 in first innings
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 yesterday.
Pope made 81 on his Surrey home ground and all-rounder Woakes exactly 50 before England were dismissed for 290 in reply to India’s first-innings 191 on the second day of the fourth Test. India were 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.
Yadav’s early double strike
England were struggling at 62-5 early yesterday after paceman Umesh Yadav, playing his first Test in nearly a year, removed Craig Overton and Dawid Malan in a return of 3-76 in 19 overs. Yadav had also bowled England captain Joe Root for just 21 on Thursday after the world’s top-ranked Test batsman had made three hundreds this series.
But Pope revived the innings during partnerships of 89 and 71 with Jonny Bairstow (37) and Moeen Ali (35) respectively.
Warwickshire paceman
Woakes, who’d already marked his first Test in over a year by leading England’s attack with 4-55 on Thursday, then blazed his way to a fifty in just 58 balls.
England resumed yesterday on 53-3 after fit-again India all-rounder Shardul Thakur had struck a 31-ball fifty — the fastest in terms of balls faced in a Test in England. Yadav, recalled with Thakur after India dropped fellow pacemen Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami, removed nightwatchman Overton for his overnight score of one, with a flashing square cut caught by India captain Virat Kohli at first slip.
Skittish start
Malan had added just five runs when, squared up by Yadav, he was well caught by a diving
Rohit at second slip. Pope, after a skittish start, hit three fours in four balls off Thakur — an on-drive, a clip through mid-on and a resounding pull off a short-pitched delivery.
Kohli, in the ongoing absence of star off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, brought on slow left-armer Ravindra Jadeja in a bid to break the partnership.
It was Mohammed Siraj, however, who reduced England to 151-6 when Bairstow was lbw playing down the wrong line to a ball that nipped back off the pitch.
But Pope leg-glanced the paceman for four to complete a 92-ball fifty.
He was in sight of what would have been just his second hundred in 20 Tests, and first in England, when he played on to Thakur with an angled bat after more than four hours at the crease. Woakes, however, kept the runs coming, with the best of his 11 fours a superb back foot cover-drive ‘on the up’ off Jasprit Bumrah.
Umesh Yadav, recalled with Thakur after India dropped fellow pacemen Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami, removed nightwatchman Overton for his overnight score of one, with a flashing square cut caught by Virat Kohli at first slip.