For the first time in 147 years: England’s Ollie Pope has achieved what Don Bradman and Sachin Tendulkar failed to do

It was a special Friday for Ollie Pope. He had managed just 30 in the previous four innings since replacing the injured Ben Stokes as England captain at the start of the series against Sri Lanka. But Ollie Pope returned to form in style on his home turf, the Oval, scoring his first hundred as England captain on Friday’s opening day of the third Test against Sri Lanka. When bad light ended the day’s play, Pope was on a run-a-ball 103 not out and England were well-set to 221-3.

It was Pope’s seventh, seventh century in Test cricket. Interestingly, each of his first seven centuries came against different opponents – a first in the 147-year history of Test cricket.

Sri Lanka, already 2-0 down in the three-match series, failed to make the most of the overcast skies and green pitch after captain Dhananjaya de Silva won the toss.

It could be argued that England should have scored another hundred on Friday as opener Ben Duckett, not for the first time, gave away his wicket after scoring 86.

Duckett praised his captain for ignoring comments from players such as former England captain Michael Vaughan who doubted Pope could cope with the demands of leadership and playing in the No.3 position.

“This shouldn’t have happened, but there’s been a lot of buzz around Popeye over the last few weeks,” Duckett told reporters after the campaign ended.

“To block that out and get that incredible hundred was really good,” he added after Pope scored his 12th first-class hundred on his home turf in Surrey.

A rare glimmer of hope for struggling Sri Lanka came when Joe Root was dismissed for 13 just before the tea break.

Root was fresh from scoring two hundreds in a 190-run victory at Lord’s in which he set a new England record of 34 Test centuries.

England, who beat the West Indies 3-0 earlier this season, are looking for their first home Test win since 2004 when Vaughan made it seven in a row.

Duckett quickly gained momentum, with the left-handed pitcher scoring four runs on consecutive pitches by Milan Rathnayake.

The situation was completely different for opener Dan Lawrence, a professional middle-order batsman.

In this series, Lawrence was forced to play with the new ball due to the injured Zak Crawley.

He had scored just five points when he fell into a trap when Lahiru Kumara bowled the ball too short and then flicked it towards Gully.

Number three Pope, who scored a century against the West Indies at Trent Bridge in July, started the game in style, catching a loose ball from the fast bowler Rathnayake for four points and then taking a six from Kumara.

Meanwhile, 29-year-old Duckett completed an impressive fifty off just 48 balls, including seven fours.

Even with floodlights on, the umpires decided it was too dangerous to continue and called off play due to poor lighting conditions, with England 76-1 in 15 overs. Rain then fell and play did not resume until 14:10 GMT.

Duckett soon attacked Kumara, scoring a six over fine leg and hitting him high over three ma, while all four Sri Lankan fast bowlers struggled to maintain the demanding line and length.

But Duckett, who was making only his fourth century in 26 Test matches, was run out after misfiring a pass from Rathnayake to wicketkeeper Dinesh Chandimal with England’s score at 140-2.

“When you play like that for a long time you can’t just get down, but I clearly couldn’t get a hundred in a Test,” Duckett said.

“It might be a learning day for me, but it’s a shot I’ve been thinking about playing in Test cricket for a long time. It just felt right.”

Pope, 26, was lucky to get a six off Kumara but the tenacious bowler managed to force Root to hit the ball to fine leg where Vishwa Fernando held on to the ball despite slipping on the wet pitch.

Surrey favourite Pope, who scored 84 in the competitive match, scored his first Test hundred at The Oval when he bowled Asitha Fernando in style, smashing his 13th four in 102 balls, including two sixes.

In his 49th match at this level, Pope became the first player to score his first seven Test centuries against different teams.

With AFP inputs