Pope, Hartley script sensational win for England in first Test

England, riding on batsman Ollie Pope’s 196 and debutant left-arm spinner Tom Hartley’s 7/62, scored a sensational 28-run win over India at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad (Deccan) to take a 1-0 lead in the five-Test series.

Batting first, England were bowled out for 246 in first innings with skipper Ben Stokes top-scoring with 70. R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja took three wickets each.

India responded with 436, a 190-run lead, built on Yashasvi Jaiswal’s 80, KL Rahul’s 86 and Ravindra Jadeja’s 87. Joe Root picked 4/79.

England were struggling at 163/5 with half the side gone but Pope scripted partnerships of 112 with Ben Foakes (34), 64 with Rehan Ahmed (28) and 80 with Tom Hartley (34) to help set India a target of 231 on Day Four on Sunday.

The Indian batting then collapsed against Hartley with no batsman able to get to a half-century. Skipper Rohit Sharma top-scored with 39. While Hartley took seven, Jack Leach and Joe Root took a wicket each.

This was India’s only fourth loss at home since 2013. It was a shock win since it came with both Jadeja and Ashwin in the side.

India and England now move to Visakhapatnam for the second Test of the series.

Cricket, Test, Ollie Pope, Tom Hartley, England, India