London: Ollie Pope scored a flawless half-century (batting 74 off 143 balls) to help England move to 227/7 at tea, 36 runs ahead of India’s first innings total, on the second day of the fourth Test against India here Friday.
Pope played tight and stitched half-century partnerships with Jonny Bairstow (37) and Moeen Ali (35) to bring the host back into the game when they had looked down and out early on second morning, being 62/5.
Pope added 89 for the sixth wicket with the England wicketkeeper and then 71 for the seventh wicket with Ali.
India had begun well early on as they picked two more wickets to reduce England from the overnight 53/3 to 62/5. Umesh Yadav became the sixth Indian pacer to get to 150 wickets when he removed nightwatchman Craig Overton before getting rid of Dawid Malan.
Brief scores (Day 2, tea): India 191 all out vs England 227/7 (Ollie Pope batting 74, Jonny Bairstow 37, Moeen Ali 35, Dawid Malan 31, Umesh Yadav 3/70, Jasprit Bumrah 2/33)