Ollie Pope defies India with gritty hundred as England make 316/6 on Day 3

Ollie Pope transformed the RGI Stadium into a gladiatorial fighting arena with a doughty hundred as England reached 316 for six to temporarily resist Indias push for a win on the third day of the IND vs ENG 1st Test on SaturdayPope 148 batting and Rehan Ahmed 16 batting were guarding Englands second innings fort at close and the visitors are now 126 runs ahead of India an unimaginable position at the dawn of the dayIndia were bowled out for 436 in their first innings after building a lead of 190 runsIt was quite remarkable how Pope who generally resembles a cat on a hot tin roof in these conditions mustered fortitude and technical perfection to defy the Indian bowlers who were primed to finish the match on day three itself reducing England to 163 for fiveBut Pope and Ben Foakes 34 milked 104 runs for the sixth wicket alliance to keep India at bay stretching the match into the fourth dayIt wasnt that Pope had complete command in the middle as spinners on occasions beat him for turn and pacers deceived him outside the offstumpThere was even a reprieve for him on 110 when Axar Patel grassed a fairly straight chance at backward square leg off Ravindra Jadeja when the batter attempted a reverse sweepBut the 26yearold Essex man found a way to push those distractions away from his thoughts to build on individual and the teams scorePope whose main source of runs were sweeps and reverse sweeps duly completed his first Test hundred fifth in his career against India off 154 balls leading Englands recovery actAlso ReadHow Yashasvi Jaiswal vindicated Dravids belief in him as allformat openerIt was a massive effort from a batter who had just 384 runs from nine Tests against India at an average of 24 with a highest of 81 before this inningsHowever credit should also be given to Foakes for playing a mature hand to support Pope in his ventureThe wicketkeeperbatter is one of better players in this England lineup against spin as he can read the tweakers off their hands and off the pitchThe Surrey batter who averages 40 in Asia in Tests put all those abilities into use here to battle Indian spinners for 108 minutes across two sessions as England fought tooth and nail to stay alive in the IND vs ENG 1st TestThe Indian bowlers too looked clueless in the face of this unexpected confrontation from their rivalsHowever the burgeoning stand came to a close when leftarm spinner Axar Patel managed to slip a low grubber past Foakes defence to rattle his woodworkBut before that fight England resembled a rudderless ship in a storm against a set of brilliant Indian bowlersPacer Jasprit Bumrah found some relevance for himself amidst the dominance of spinners to jettison Joe Root and Ben Duckett to inflict early joltsBumrah managed to sneak an inducker past Ben Duckett 47 52 balls from the length as the batter was culpable of playing around the ball while another incoming delivery that kept low gave little chance to Joe Root 2 while hitting his knee rollsSoon the old firm of R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja joined the party Jadeja was the first to get into the act in the postlunch session getting rid of Jonny Bairstow 10Bairstow negated a ball that turned away from him quite solidly but the next one from Jadeja went straight and his decision to shoulder arms had a fatal effect on his stint in the middleBut there was more magic in store as Ashwin got the number of England captain Ben Stokes for the 12th time in Test cricketAfter getting tied down by three maidens in a row by the offspinner the lefthander tried to release the pressure going for a forward press but the ball spun past his bat to rattle the stumpsStokes bewildered face spoke volumes about Ashwins mastery over his craft especially anglesBefore their bowlers made some early inroads into the England lineup India had a mildly disappointing 54 minutes in the morning session after resuming from overnight 421 for sevenJadeja could not bring up a muchanticipated fourth Test hundred falling leg before to RootThe lefthander went to front foot to defend a length delivery on offstump and the ball took a good amount of turn to hit his pads Umpire Chris Gaffaney raised his finger as Jadeja opted to review the callThe ball seemed to have taken a deflection off his bat but the replays remained inconclusive and the third umpire went with the onfield umpires decision to give the batter out leg beforeIn the very next ball Root castled Bumrah and Ahmed cleaned up Axar as Indian innings came to a quick end losing their last three wickets without adding any runsBut as it turned out it was just a damp start to an exceptional day of cricketWith agency inputs