Pope shows Stoneman the way with century as Surrey thrive
This grand old fixture, dating back to the 1850s, threw up exactly the sort of opening batsman England need. A tough and nuggety customer, one who blunted the new ball and set the game up for Ollie Pope, who took Yorkshire apart ever more brilliantly in his second first-class century.
Ed Smith, England’s new national selector, will no doubt have analysed a lot of data concerning this well-equipped opening batsman. He leaves a high percentage of balls shrewdly. He puts away the bad ones. He drives only when the ball is under his eyes. But Smith’s analysis might spot one drawback: Dean Elgar plays for South Africa.
It would have been so much more convenient if it had been Mark Stoneman who had softened up Yorkshire’s bowling for Pope, but yet again England’s current opener could not get beyond a modest start. In his 10 Tests, Stoneman has averaged 30, which is tolerable, and has a highest score of 60, which is barely so, while this season he has yet to reach 30, which is decidedly not.
It was Rory Burns who made the mistakes, beaten several times in defence and attack, but it was Stoneman who was out first, planting his front foot and beaten when Tim Bresnan swung in.
Stoneman’s technique is up to scratch, better than Alastair Cook’s, but whereas Cook oozes imperturbable self-assurance, his partner gets vertigo. Once Stoneman has made a capable start, and pace comes off the ball, he has time to look down, and hesitate, and be lost. Still, he probably has two more Tests, against Pakistan, because no other opener has put up his hand with conviction.
Joe Root was on hand to watch Stoneman as he captained Yorkshire because Gary Ballance was ill. He sent Surrey in after an uncontested toss, and his bowling nipped out Elgar, who was batting at No4, for 61 when he came down the pitch and played for turn.
Pope had appeared at 69 for four, which is not the sort of triumphal entry that Popes have normally made, at least not since the Avignon schism.
Surrey’s Pope is only 20, attended Cranleigh, and has made the most of being blooded at No6 on one of the friendliest batting pitches in the country, although this was far from that when he entered, still green and bouncy. Pope’s defence was more compact than that of Ben Foakes; being a wicketkeeper when he gets the chance, Pope is very nimble on his feet, and ready to leap in the air to get on top of his square-cuts, and quick to duck bouncers; and overall his shot selection was most discerning, with one exception, in that he was conservative until well set, then unfurled
‘He’s still a young kid with a lot to learn, but he has a really bright future’
on-drives and pick-ups that splintered Yorkshire’s attack into waywardness.
Elgar likes what he sees of Pope. “Ollie has really impressed me,” he said. “He looked a good player when I played against him last season and he is definitely one to watch. He’s still a young kid with a lot to learn, but he has a really bright future.”
Yorkshire batsman Adam Lyth also picked out the youngster for praise. “The first two sessions were fantastic for us, but the third was indifferent,” he said. “I thought the young lad Pope played very well for them, so hats off to him.”
The one phase when Pope was ruffled, and the mitre threatened to fall off, occurred when he was stuck on 49. His ‘go-to shot’, as with most keepers, was the cut but he could not get one away, and fretted, and would have been run out when his partner Rikki Clarke called him for a single, only Harry Brook at extracover missed with his throw at the bowler’s end. He survived and finished the day unbeaten on 131 as Surrey reached 366 for seven.
It will be understandable if Smith wants to fast-forward from this generation of batsmen around the age – and average – of 30, such as Stoneman, and go for younger players who can change their spots as batsmen and be made into fine fielders.
The trouble is that Pope and Brook, Yorkshire’s No3, are just a little too young. For certain, though, while every other shelf of England’s cupboard is bare, it is stocked with wicketkeeper-batsmen as never before.