Ollie Pope gave Joe Root credit for his magnificent century, which was made during the second test match between England and New Zealand, which is now taking place at Trent Bridge in Nottingham. On the third day of the match, the home team presented a challenge to the visitors from New Zealand. Pope made 145 runs, and he also had a third-wicket partnership with Root that was worth 187 runs.
Ollie Pope scored his first hundred in a Test match on home soil, and more crucially, he did it after being moved up the order to number three. This was certainly a knock that helped lift Pope’s spirits, considering his last century had been scored back in January of 2020 against South Africa in Port Elizabeth.
I had a lot of fun hitting with Rooty: Ollie Pope
When he was chatting to Sky Sports Cricket, Ollie Pope had this to say: “It was an amazing experience being out there. Batting with Rooty was a fantastic experience for me. He is outstanding and does it week in and week out. When he bats, he is very calm and collected. He has a tremendous amount of command. From a tactical perspective, he drives in a lot of runs by putting the ball down between third and second. It’s a fantastic little reminder for me because that’s what I do when I’m playing well as well.”
While all this was going on, Joe Root kept up his impressive form by scoring an additional sparkling hundred throughout the course of this test series. Due to him getting out for 176, he did not have the opportunity to score a well-deserved century. Nevertheless, throughout this remarkable performance, the English batting star set a handful of new marks in their respective categories. This was the quickest test century of his career, as it only took 116 balls for him to reach the century mark.
In addition to that, the former captain scored his fourth century in the most recent five tests. During the same match, Root also scored his 27th century in the longest format, tying him with batting superstars Virat Kohli and Steve Smith for the most centuries scored in a single format. England will now be looking to mount a comeback in this Test match over the next two days after displaying a great batting performance in their first innings of the contest.
