England captain Ollie Pope hit his way out of a bad patch previous four innings with a splendid unbeaten run a ball 103:as the hosts reached a healthy 221 for the loss of 3 wickets on the opening day of the third and final test match at the Kennington Oval yesterday.
Pope hit 13 boundaries and 2 sixes in re insulating himself as top fettle stuff into his element yesterday to silencing home critics as he put England on a sound footing for a clean sweep of the 3-match series.
Sri Lanka claimed the first England wicket of Dan Lawrence whom Lahiru Kumara had held by Pathum Nissanka for 5 in another miserable showing playing in place of injured regular opener Ben Crawley.
Pope proved to be England’s cornerstone taking the score to 140 in a second wicket 95 partnership with Ben Duckett who was also spor on with a 79-ball 86 studded with 9 hits to the ropes and 2 over the top.
Sri Lanka did get rid of trouble maker Joe Root to chiefly putting England 2-up with Kumara sending him on his way to a catch by Vishwa Fernando for 13.
Pope stood tall taking England past 200 and the end of play 221 for 3 in the company of Harry Brook who was on 8 when bad light brought an early end following over a three-hour stoppage for bad light.
England 221/3 44.1 Overs (Ollie Pope n.o. 103, Ben Duckett 86, Harry Brook n.o. 8, Lahiru Kumara 2/81, Milan Rathnayake 1/34)