Stand-in captain Ollie Pope on Friday achieved a major milestone in the history of Test cricket. Playing his 49 Test, he became the first cricketer in the history of the game to score seven Test centuries on his first seven attempts in different countries.
Ollie Pope went on to score the milestone century for England on the third Test against Sri Lanka at The Oval on the very first day. He remained not out at 103 off 103 balls. England’s score crossed the 221/3 mark along with his name making to the list of records.
Ollie Pope’s comeback from the slump was pronounced particularly owing to the fact that he had been out of form lately. Before this match, Pope had only 30 runs in first four innings after he replaced Stokes who was injured early in the series to captain England. Pope scored his maiden century as the captain of England. It was also the 12th scorer of his first-class matches. and seventh in test matches. Considering the number of teams that he has played, this particular achievement is quite remarkable.
Ollie Pope’s seven centuries against seven different opponents are listed below.
- January 2020 marked the birth of the seven centuries haul for pope as it was against South Africa where he made a score of 135 quitting batting at no 6 crease position. This was however the only century among all that Pope made other than no. 3 order in batting.
- He had to wait for two long years for the single longest score of his career that came against New Zealand at Nottingham in Jan 2022, which was 145 runs. This was his maiden hundred batting at number three.
- Pope returned to the crease in December 2022 to score his third Test century, a brisk knock of 108 runs off 104 trips to the wickets against Pakistan in Rawalpindi.
- The fourth century was scored in the month of June 2023 against Ireland at Lord’s, where in 205 runs scored of 208 balls was his maiden Test double hundred.
- In January 2024, Pope made history by scoring 196 runs against India played a picturesque innings in the city of Hyderabad, which is relative to one of the best performances by a visiting batter on Indian soil.
- The sixth such hundred came on FoW Portal in July 2024 when he made 121 runs against West Indies in Nottingham.
- Pope completed his seven test centuries against seven different test playing countries, at six locations over the world, with one of the most beautiful innings at 103 unbeaten runs against Sri Lanka at The Oval on Friday. This phenomenon is a first in the annals of cricket.
Pope has omitted the countries of Australia, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, and Afghanistan from the list of test-playing nations in which he has not made a century. Apart from Australia, he has not played these teams in his career so far.
Ollie Pope’s century making ability against this variety of oppositions indicates his versatility and competence that rightly deserves recognition in the history of Test cricket.
