England reduced to 62-5 before Ollie Pope (81) and Chris Woakes (50) earn hosts first-innings lead of 99 in fourth Test; India close on 43-0 to trail by 56; watch day three from 10.15am, Saturday on Sky Sports Cricket and Sky Sports Main Event
Saturday 4 September 2021 07:34, UK
Ollie Pope and Chris Woakes scored half-centuries as England carved out a 99-run first-innings lead over India on day two of the fourth Test at The Kia Oval before the tourists cut that to 56 by stumps.
Pope (81 off 159 balls) struck his first fifty in 16 Test innings to rally his side from 62-5, while Woakes (50 off 60) - whose four wickets had helped England roll India for 191 on day one - powered 11 boundaries late on as the hosts posted 290 all out in south London.
England did not pick up any wickets in the hour or so before stumps, with Rory Burns unable to snaffle a sharp chance at slip when Rohit Sharma, on six at the time, edged James Anderson.
India closed on 43-0 from 16 overs in a finely-balanced Test, with Rohit unbeaten on 20 and fellow opener KL Rahul 22 not out.
Pope fell 19 runs short of an eighth hundred in 19 first-class innings at The Oval, a ground where he averages 99.40, but his knock underpinned England's total as he put on fluent stands of 89 and 71 with with Jonny Bairstow (37) and Moeen Ali (35) respectively.
England were 255-9 once Pope and then Ollie Robinson (6) were removed but Woakes, in his first Test in over a year, then fired a flurry of fours as he scored 33 of the 35 runs in a last-wicket stand with Anderson (1no).
India had taken three England wickets late on day one - including Root, bowled by Umesh Yadav for 21 - and continued their comeback early on day two, with Umesh having nightwatchman Craig Overton (1) and Dawid Malan (31) caught at slip, Overton out to the 10th ball of the morning.
At the point of Malan's dismissal, which came courtesy of an excellent diving grab from Rohit Sharma, England were five down and trailed by 129.
However, Pope - who was severely tested by Jasprit Bumrah early on - and Bairstow - who survived an lbw review off Umesh on nought - counter-attacked, including striking seven boundaries across two overs, bowled by Shardul Thakur and Mohammed Siraj respectively.
Surrey batsman Pope, recalled for this Test in the absence of Jos Buttler, managed four fours in a row off Thakur, albeit that one went down as leg byes, while Bairstow fired three on the trot off Siraj.
The stand was snapped 20 minutes after lunch when Bairstow fell lbw to a Siraj nip-backer - an irate Bairstow suggesting he had been distracted by something behind the bowler's arm - but Pope pushed on, whipping a leg-side ball from Siraj for four to seal a 91-ball, sixth Test fifty.
Pope had begun his Test career with six fifty-plus scores in 17 knocks, including 135 against South Africa in Port Elizabeth in January 2020, which remains his solitary Test ton.
A pretty barren run followed but he was back to his best on his home ground on Friday having made a tweak to his set-up at the crease, which saw him move across his stumps after previously covering off stump.
Moeen looked fluent, too, but then departed when well set as an ungainly slog-sweep saw him balloon spinner Ravindra Jadeja to cover - India removing a batsman they would have dismissed lbw for 14 had they opted for the review when Bumrah's yorker crunched him on the toe.
Pope seemed poised for a century against an increasingly ragged India attack, only to then drag the expensive Thakur back onto his stumps as his first-class average at The Oval dipped below 100.
England's first-innings lead ended up just below 100, too, with Woakes racing to a 58-ball, sixth Test fifty as he found the fence off Thakur, Bumrah and Umesh.
England will have to bat last on this surface but, as has been well documented, they will not have to deal with Ravichandran Ashwin, with the off-spinner left out by India for the fourth Test in a row.
Watch day three of the fourth Test between England and India, from The Kia Oval, live on Sky Sports Cricket and Sky Sports Main Event from 10.15am on Saturday.
