Watch: The outrageous scoop Ollie Pope in the Hyderabad Test match was merely an encore from seven years ago.
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Ollie Pope’s magnificent hundred turned the first Test of England’s five-match series in India, at Hyderabad. At one point, England needed 27 to make India bat again with five wickets in hand, but they rode on Pope’s 196 to set a target of 231.
Debutant Tom Hartley then routed India with 7-62 to help England script a 28-run win. This was England’s second Test match triumph on Indian soil in over eleven years, and India’s second defeat at home in three games.
Pope used the sweep and the reverse sweep to great effect throughout the innings. A significant proportion of his 21 fours – he hit one every 13 balls – came using one of the two.
His most audacious stroke, off Ravindra Jadeja, was more scoop than sweep. Bowling from round the wicket, Jadeja pitched the ball on, or perhaps a tad outside, the leg stump. Pope went down on his left knee and scooped the ball over wicketkeeper KS Bharat for four.
It was a shot very similar to the Dilscoop that bears the name of its inventor, Tillakaratne Dilshan.
However, it not the first time Pope played the shot in international cricket. Against Sri Lanka Under-19s at Canterbury in 2016, Pope scooped left-arm spinner Damitha Silva, who was also bowling from round the wicket – though the shot fetched him only three on that occasion.
Pope had top-scored with a 78-ball 87 on that day as well, though England’s 276-9 fell short of Sri Lanka’s 300.
Watch Ollie Pope play his outrageous scoop:
In 2016
Ollie Pope has just done this. I approve. pic.twitter.com/54huPWF9az
— Elizabeth Ammon (@legsidelizzy) August 16, 2016
In 2024
Some player https://t.co/oRZuOLMasG pic.twitter.com/YuzW7ZvUnQ
— aki 🎲 (@padiopanee) January 27, 2024
