England’s stand-in captain Ollie Pope was all praise for his team after they registered a five-wicket win against Sri Lanka in the first Test match at Old Trafford, Manchester on Saturday. Pope said they showed they are not just a one-dimensional team after they chased down 205 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
The hosts found themselves in a tricky situation at 70-3 but their most experienced batter Joe Root scored a gutsy knock of 62 runs off 128 balls to help his team get over the line.
Harry Brook also scored a crucial knock of 32 runs whereas first-innings centurion Jamie Smith scored another pivotal knock of 39 runs.
Ollie Pope said while talking to BBC after the win, “On another day you might see us try to knock that off in 20 less overs. It shows where we’re coming on as a team overall, we’re not just a one-dimensional team where we want to go out and score quickly. We want to keep reading situations slightly better and try to be as ruthless as we can. If we feel like that is a way to go, it’s not all about trying to score as quickly as we can, it’s about getting the job done.”
Meanwhile, Pope was leading for the first time in Ben Stokes’ absence and he admitted there were important lessons learned by him.
“It was different, more so in the field. There were some good lessons learned for me,” Pope said in the same interview.
Pope hailed Stokes for giving him his space for leading the team in his own way and said he always tries to pick the all-rounder’s brain.
“I think Stokesy was bored at times. He’d much rather be playing. He was great. Every now and again I’d pick his brain, more than he comes to me. He wanted to give me my own space to do it my own way, but I know there will be conversations with him and [McCullum] while we’re on the pitch about potential plans for different batters, which is great to have when we come off for a break,” Ollie Pope added.
The second Test match between England and Sri Lanka will be played at Lord’s, starting August 29.
