England vice-captain Ollie Pope etched his name in history books as he registered his seventh century on Day 1 of the third Test against Sri Lanka on Friday September 6 at Kennington Oval, London. Pope reached the landmark late on the opening day as he found a boundary through the off side and brought up his ton off just 102 balls.
Following his landmark achievement, he scripted history to become the first player in the history of the game to score his first seven centuries in the longest format against seven different oppositions. Notably, Pope scored his maiden hundred (135*) against South Africa in Gqeberha in January 2020.
He further scored 145 in June 2022 against New Zealand in Nottingham to register his second ton. Pope brought up his next four centuries against Pakistan (108), Ireland (205), India (196) and West Indies (121).
The best innings of his career so far came against India earlier this year in the opening Test of the five-match series at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. He scored a phenomenal 196 (278) in a master class of reverse sweeps on a spinning surface to help England come back in the Test after conceding a 190-run lead in the first innings.
Courtesy of his effort, the Ben Stokes-led side set a target of 231 runs to chase down for India in the fourth innings and managed to win by 28 runs. Meanwhile, coming back to the third Test against Sri Lanka, England were asked to bat first by the Sri Lanka captain Dhananjaya de Silva on a cloudy morning.
Daniel Lawrence departed early scoring just 5 in the tenth over but Pope and Ben Duckett continued to keep the scoreboard moving with their 95-run stand. Duckett was dismissed for 86 by Milan Rathnayake while in-form Joe Root had a rare failure and departed for just 13 to leave England on 191/3. Following his dismissal, Pope (103*) and Harry Brook (8*) took England to stumps with the score on 221/3.
