Sports

Ollie Pope, Ben Duckett conspire to crush Ireland

Published

2 years ago

2023/06/3

Priyan

Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope cashed in on the second day (pic Cricinfo)

It had to be six. In England’s new Test era, his double-century just one run away it was only fitting that Ollie Pope passed the milestone with a skip and a heave to dispatch Andy McBrine all the way down the ground. This was Bazball, only it wasn’t – because it didn’t need to be.

So as Pope and Ben Duckett etched their names among records and onto the Lord’s honours board, the only takeaways from England’s mismatch with Ireland were ruminations over what will happen against Australia in exactly a fortnight’s time – and a bit of gold leaf.

In fairness, there were also a maiden Test wicket – plus two more – for debutant seamerJosh Tongue, forced to wait until Ireland’s second innings after 13 impressive but fruitless overs in the first, as well as a trip to the medical room for opener James McCollum who twisted his right ankle horribly swivelling on an abandoned pull shot in Tongue’s second over of the day to deepen Ireland’s considerable woes.

Tongue replaced Stuart Broad – as he did in Ireland’s first innings where Broad claimed a five-wicket haul – in the seventh over and struck with his first and sixth deliveries, trapping PJ Moor lbw with one that kept low and drew an outside edge as Andy Balbirnie played away from his body only to find Jonny Bairstow’s gloves. An England review secured his third when Ultra-Edge revealed the ball had brushed Paul Stirling’s glove as he attempted a pull and Bairstow collected behind the stumps again so that at the close Ireland still trailed by 255 runs.

Ben Stokes declared with a lead of 352 when Pope fell, immediately after bringing up his 200 off 207 balls, again shimmying out of his crease as McBrine tossed the ball up outside off stump and Lorcan Tucker whipped off the bails. Having reached his half-century – and 11,000 Test runs – just before tea,Joe Root fell just three balls into the evening session, bowled by McBrine as he came down the pitch to one that turned between bat and pad and into the stumps.

It was Duckett who set the tone though, sharing a 252-run stand for the second wicket with Pope after the pair resumed on 60 and 29 respectively and with England 20 runs in arrears overnight. Duckett scored 101 in the morning session as he and Pope added 173 runs from 29 overs. But this wasn’t the muscular, chest-thumping, roaring aggression we have become accustomed to in the year since Stokes assumed the captaincy and Brendon McCullum became head coach. Only occasionally did Duckett and Pope look like they were trying to make things happen. Mostly they cashed in on some loose Ireland bowling as the gulf between the sides was laid bare.

Pope saw Duckett’s 182 and raised it. He survived an Ireland review for lbw on 76 when debutante Fionn Hand struck him just above the knee roll with one that came back sharply as ball-tracking showed it was going just over the top of middle stump. Having lunched on 97 not out, Pope comfortably navigated the six balls he faced across two overs after the interval to bring up his ton by advancing and whipping McBrine past mid-on for a single.

Duckett helped himself to 14 off three deliveries in McBrine’s next over, including a slog-sweep for six, and it took the replacement of a misshapen ball for Ireland to remove him, trying to cut Graham Hume’s delivery which pitched on a length and angled in to find a thick outside edge and ricochet onto off stump.

The replacement ball kept Pope and Joe Root on their toes for a time as the Ireland bowlers found more movement. But the England duo settled into a 50-run stand off 49 balls with Root, who faced 15 balls for his first five runs, contributing 16 off 23. From there they found their stride with Pope and Root each peeling a six off McBrine, Pope down the ground and Root wide over mid-on.

The first of back-to-back fours off Curtis Campher took Pope past the 150-mark in 166 balls, equaling the previous record for the fastest 150 in Tests at Lord’s held by Sir Donald Bradman and which Duckett had smashed by reaching the milestone at a-run-a-ball in the morning session.

Pope also equalled Duckett’s earlier feat of adding 100 runs in a session shortly before tea, but there was still time for Root to bring up his half-century and take England past the 500-mark with a pulled four off Campher. Next ball, a leg-side single left Root unbeaten on 52 at tea.

By the time Root fell, he had added 146 runs with Pope and, as England maintained a staggering run-rate of 6.34, it was done with an air that was more clinical than brutal. There is no doubt whatsoever that the hosts will be preparing to unleash the beast once more when the Ashes begin.

Brief scores:

Ireland 172 (James McCollum 36, Paul Stirling 30, Curtis Campher 33; Stuart Broad 5-51, Jack Leach 3-35) and 97 for 3 (Harry Tector 33*, Lorcan Tucker 21*; Josh Tongue 3-27) trail England 524 for 4 declared (Ollie Pope 205, Ben Duckett 182, Zak Crawley 56, Joe Root 56; Andy McBrine 2-99) by 255 runs

(Cricinfo)

All News Advertisement

Related Topics:Ben Duckett England England vs Ireland ireland Ireland in England Ollie Pope Stuart Broad

Up Next

BCB to investigate Shakib’s social media post pertaining to Betwinner News

Don't Miss

Manchester City win third successive English Premier League title

Priyan

Click to comment

Latest News

IPL 2025: Chennai Super Kings suffer fifth loss on the trot as Kolkata Knight Riders register monster win

Published

15 hours ago

2025/04/12

Priyan

Sunil Narine capturedthree wickets and scored 44 runs for KKR

So that’s what happens when Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) get the kind of pitch their spinners like. Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy and Moeen Ali (12-1-55-6) went into Chepauk and burgled wickets away from the five-time IPL champions until they were a pale, weak shadow of themselves. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) crumbled to 103 for 9, their lowest IPL total at home, suffered a fifth successive defeat, which had never happened before in their entire history, and are marooned in ninth place on the points table. Welcome back to captaincy, MS Dhoni.

The major characteristic of a black-soil pitch is that it is slow and it grips. It felt like home, which is ironic because home hasn’t felt like home for them this season. KKR would prefer to play most of their matches in conditions like this but their efforts to procure them at the Eden Gardens hasn’t gone well. Ajinkya Rahane doesn’t even want to talk about it now. He did, however, spearhead a phenomenal bowling performance. He brought Moeen into the XI and set him loose on CSK’s two left-hand openers. Devon Conway couldn’t overcome the handicap. The KKR offspinner pocketed a wicket maiden. In the next over, Rachin Ravindra was gone. CSK were bleeding by the end of the powerplay, their 31 for 2 only slightly better than the season low of 30 for 3 that they themselves had set, against Royal Challengers Bengaluru.

Exposing this CSK team’s middle order is the only thing their oppositions need to do to win against them. Rahul Tripathi was brought in as Ruturaj Gaikwad’s replacement but he couldn’t figure out whether he wanted to hit out or play through and that indecision was reflected in his final score – 16 off 22. Vijay Shankar could have been dismissed for a duck, or for 20, had KKR held onto their catches. Even with those two lives he couldn’t push on to make a big score. Shivam Dube walked out with CSK at 59 for 3. He had faced only 13 balls and that was still enough time for the score to slip to 75 for 8, at which point his team was in danger of recording their lowest total in IPL history.

For the 16th time in his IPL career, Narine bowled his four overs without conceding a boundary. No one, having got through their full quota, has done it more times. He also knocked off Tripathi, who didn’t know which way the ball would turn, and Ravindra Jadeja and MS Dhoni, who didn’t know which way the ball would spin. There was some doubt over the Dhonii lbw, though. UltraEdge showed what looked like faint murmurs as the ball passed the bat.

CSK were being smothered. They had to wait 63 balls between boundaries – only two teams have ever been that emphatically silenced in this tournament – and hit just three after the eighth over (one of them off a top edge). They had to bring in Deepak Hooda as Impact Player, accepting the risk of going in with a bowler short when they would have to defend this total. But even that gamble backfired. Hooda fell for a duck and one of their key players, Matheesha Pathirana, could not take part in the game.

Defending 103 is a thankless job because bowlers tend to go hard searching for wickets and in that process they leak runs. After under-performing in their batting powerplay, CSK underwhelmed with their bowling powerplay. KKR ransacked 71 runs in the first six overs. This game was no contest.

Brief scores:
Kolkata Knight Riders 107 for 2 in 10.1 overs (Sunil Narine 44, Quinton de Kock 23, Ajinkaya Rahane 20*, Rinku Singh 15*; Anshul Kamboj 1-19, Noor Ahmad 1-08) beat Chennai Super Kings 103 for 9 in 20 overs (Devon Conway 12, Rahul Tripathi 16, Vijay Shankar 29, Shivam Dube 31; Sunil Narine 3-13, Varun Chakravarthy 2-22, Harshit Rana 2-16, Moeen Ali 1-20, Vaibhav Arora 1-31) by eight wickets

[Cricinfo]

Latest News

Dharshana and co win invitational relay

Published

1 day ago

2025/04/11

Priyan

Sri Lanka ‘A’ team inclusive of Olympian Aruna Dharshana, Sadew Rajakaruna, R. Madushan and Kalinga Kumarage won the invitational 4×400 metres relay ahead of Sri Lanka ‘B’ and India at Diyagama a little while ago.

They returned a time of 3:05.60 seconds( not the official time) to win.

They remained unchallanged from the gun to finish as Dharshana provided a solid start for the others to maintain. Their only challange came from the Sri Lanka ‘B’ team who beat India to the third place.

India did not field their best team.

Kalinga Kumarage did the anchor leg for Sri Lanka.

The Maldives and the Phillippine teams were well behind the winners.

Sri Lanka Athletics conducted the event in a bid to provide the country’s 4×400 metres team a chance to produce a top timing.

(RF)

Latest News

Mohamed Salah signs new two-year contract with Liverpool

Published

1 day ago

2025/04/11

Priyan

Mohamed Salah has scored 243 goals in 394 games for Liverpool [BBC]

Egypt forward Mohamed Salah has signed a new two-year contract with Liverpool.

The 32-year-old’s previous deal was scheduled to run out in the summer and there had been doubts he would stay with the Reds following comments from him during the season and speculation linking him with a move to Saudi Arabia.

However, he is staying and will have the chance to add to his 243 goals and 109 assists for the club in 393 appearances.

“Of course I’m very excited – we have a great team now,” said Salah.

“Before also we had a great team. But I signed because I think we have a chance to win other trophies and enjoy my football.

“I have played eight years here, hopefully it’s going to be 10. I’m enjoying my life here, enjoying my football. I have had the best years of my career here.”

Salah has scored 32 goals in all competitions this season, including 27 in the Premier League as the Reds chase a 20th top-flight title. Liverpool are 11 points clear of second-placed Arsenal with seven games remaining.

Salah, who joined Liverpool from Roma in 2017, has won the Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup and Fifa Club World Cup with the Reds.

He was one of three key Liverpool players who will be out of contract this summer, along with right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold and centre-back Virgil van Dijk.

Netherlands defender Van Dijk has said there has been progress on talks over a new deal but Alexander-Arnold has been heavily linked with a move to Real Madrid.

[BBC]