Pope the batting hero on day three

England vice-captain Ollie Pope produced an unbeaten 148 but India remained on course for victory in the opening Test at the end of day three at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Saturday.
The tourists had risked a defeat inside three days after India, having built a lead of 190, reduced England to 163-5 in their second innings in the second session of the day.
But Pope dug his heels in, hitting 17 fours in a 274-minute masterclass to produce arguably his finest knock even though India are confident of going 1-0 up in the five-match series.
Rehan Ahmed was keeping Pope company on 16 with England finishing the third day on 316-6, putting them 126 ahead with four wickets in hand.
“It was a brilliant day of cricket for us,” England batter Joe Root said. “The way that Popey played in particular has been an absolute masterclass on how to score runs in this part of the world, when you’re not used to playing here.”
India, who have not lost a Test series on home soil since 2012, amassed 436 in their reply to England’s first innings 246.
That left England with a mountain to climb and the touring batters did not retreat into any defensive shell.
Openers Zak Crawley (31) and Ben Duckett (47) scored freely, frequently employing the sweep shot – both traditional and reverse – to negate India’s spinners. Crawley motored along at a run-a-ball rate but could not convert the start and edged a Ravichandran Ashwin ball to lone slip Rohit Sharma.
Duckett, then on 39, was lucky when Jasprit Bumrah’s lbw appeal was turned down and India did not review that decision. Replays confirmed the ball would have hit the leg stump.
Not that it mattered – in his next over, Bumrah uprooted Duckett’s off-stump and let out a roar.
SCOREBOARDEngland 1st innings 246
India 1st innings (overnight 421-7)Y. Jaiswal c and b Root 80
R. Sharma c Stokes b Leach 24
S. Gill c Duckett b Hartley 23
K.L. Rahul c Ahmed b Hartley 86
S. Iyer c Hartley b Ahmed 35
R. Jadeja lbw b Root 87
K.S. Bharat lbw b Root 41
R. Ashwin run out (Hartley/Foakes) 1
A. Patel b Ahmed 44
J. Bumrah b Root 0
M. Siraj not out 0
Extras (b5, lb6, w2, nb2) 15
Total (all out, 121 overs) 436
Fall of wickets: 1-80 (Rohit), 2-123 (Jaiswal), 3-159 (Gill), 4-223 (Iyer), 5-288 (Rahul), 6-356 (Bharat), 7-358 (Ashwin), 8-436 (Jadeja), 9-436 (Bumrah), 10-436 (Axar)
Bowling: Wood 17-1-47-0 (w2), Hartley 25-0-131-2 (nb2), Leach 26-6-63-1, Ahmed 24-4-105-2, Root 29-5-79-4
England 2nd inningsZ. Crawley c Rohit b Ashwin 31
B. Duckett b Bumrah 47
O. Pope not out 148
J. Root lbw b Bumrah 2
J. Bairstow b Jadeja 10
B. Stokes b Ashwin 6
B. Foakes b Axar 34
R. Ahmed not out 16
Extras (b10, lb6, nb6) 22
Total (6 wickets, 77 overs) 316
Fall of wickets: 1-45 (Crawley), 2-113 (Duckett), 3-117 (Root), 4-140 (Bairstow), 5-163 (Stokes), 6-275 (Foakes)
Bowling: Bumrah 12-3-29-2, Ashwin 21-3-93-2, Axar 15-2-69-1, Jadeja 26-1-101-1 (nb6), Siraj 3-0-8-0