ENG vs SL | Twitter reacts as Pope can’t believe his good fortune after surviving by hair's breadth twice

Arijit Kundu

ByArijit Kundu, SportsCafe Editor

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‌There’s a saying that fortune favours the brave. Certainly, Ollie Pope’s bravery in shutting the criticism with a ton in the third Test was well backed by divine intervention as the England captain survived marginal decisions twice in the morning session of the third Test at the Kennington Oval.

Sri Lankan captain Dhananjaya de Silva employed an all-in pace attack in the morning session of the third Test against Harry Brook and Ollie Pope. Despite luck favouring the pair, Brook fell in the 53rd over leaving Pope accompanied by Jamie Smith. To release pressure off the new batter, Pope tried to seek run-scoring opportunities and in the process was lucky to survive twice in the same over.

In order to rotate the pacers, Sri Lanka opted for a double bowling change with Lahiru Kumara and Vishwa Fernando taking responsibilities from either ends. The second ball of the 58th over saw the latter bowl a good length ball that jagged a tad in to beat Pope’s intended whip and thud his pad. While onfield umpire Chris Gaffaney ruled the English skipper out, a batting review overturned the decision as the ball pitched outside the leg stump by a hair’s breadth. 

Two balls later, Pope came down the track to drive a length delivery at the fourth stump but got a think inside edge onto the pad en route to the boundary ropes. The white cherry marginally rolled over the bails situated between the middle and leg stump grooves. Pope could not believe how lucky he was and sighed a releif after back-to-back survivals in the same over, sending the Twitterverse into a frenzy.

Review saved him

Again

Why is that?

Statpadding

Picking up

Doing it tonight

Mixing up

Great escape

Half in, half out

Buy it

 

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