A six was required. It was only natural that Ollie Pope reached the milestone with a skip and a bounce to dismiss Andy McBrine all the way down the ground in the new Test era for England with his double-century just one run away. Because it didn’t have to be, this was not Baseball.
Therefore, the only things learned from England’s loss to Ireland were predictions on what will happen against Australia in precisely a fortnight’s time and a little gold leaf. Pope and Ben Duckett, meanwhile, inscribed their names among records and onto the Lord’s honors board.
To be fair, debutant seamer Josh Tongue did manage to pick up his first Test wicket, along with two more, but he had to wait until Ireland’s second innings after bowling 13 effective but ineffective overs.
Additionally, opener James McCollum had to visit the hospital after horribly pulling his right ankle on an abandoned pull shot in Tongue’s second over of the day, adding to Ireland’s already terrible situation.
Tongue took over for Stuart Broad in the seventh over, just as he had done in Ireland’s first innings when Broad had taken five wickets, and he struck with his first and sixth balls, trapping PJ Moor leg before with one that kept low and drew an outside edge as Andy Balbirnie played away from his body only to find Jonny Bairstow’s gloves.
When Ultra-Edge proved the ball had brushed Paul Stirling’s glove as he attempted a pull, an England review gained his third, and Bairstow once more collected behind the stumps, Ireland still trailing by 255 runs at the end.
Pope fell shortly after reaching his 200 off 207 balls, again shimmying out of his crease as McBrine put the ball up outside off stump and Lorcan Tucker stopped off the bails. Ben Stokes declared with a lead of 352 at that point.
Just before tea, Joe Root scored his half-century and 11,000 Test runs. Three balls into the evening session, however, Root was bowled by McBrine as he came down the pitch to a ball that turned between bat and pad and through the stumps.
However, Duckett set the tone, putting together a 252-run partnership with Pope for the second wicket after the pair began on 60 and 29 respectively and with England down by 20 runs overnight. Together with Pope, Duckett added 173 runs from 29 overs during the morning session, scoring 101 runs.
However, this wasn’t the hulking, yelling aggression we’ve been accustomed to in the year since Stokes took over as captain and Brendon McCullum was named head coach. Duckett and Pope rarely gave off the impression that they were attempting to influence events. The gap between the teams was exposed, and they mostly profited from some sloppy Ireland bowling.
Duckett’s 182 was raised when Pope saw it. On run 76, debutant Fionn Hand struck him just above the knee roll with a ball that came back sharply as ball tracking indicated it was heading just over the top of middle stump. He avoided an Ireland review for lbw.
Pope, who had lunch on 97 not out, easily handled the six balls he faced over the next two overs to reach his century by moving forward and flicking McBrine through mid-on for a single.
Duckett scored 14 off three balls in McBrine’s subsequent over, including a slog-sweep for six, and it took Ireland the replacement of a misshaped ball to get rid of him. Ireland tried to cut Graham Hume’s delivery, but it pitched on a length, angled in, found a thick outside edge, and it ricocheted onto off stump.
Pope and Joe Root had to stay alert for a while as the Ireland bowlers discovered more movement in the replacement ball. However, the English pair found their rhythm and put up 50 runs off 49 balls, with Root scoring 16 off 23 after facing 15 balls for his first five runs. From that point on, they rediscovered their rhythm, with Pope and Root both pulling sixes off McBrine—Pope down the ground and Root wide over mid-on.
Pope reached 150 in 166 balls, matching Sir Donald Bradman’s previous record for the fastest 150 in Tests at Lord’s, which Duckett had broken by accomplishing the feat at a run every ball during the morning session. Pope’s first of back-to-back fours off Curtis Campher marked the milestone.
Pope also surpassed Duckett’s former record of 100 runs added in a session just before tea, but Root still had time to reach his fifty and lead England above the 500-run maximum with a pulled four off Campher. When the next ball came, Root was still unbeaten at 52 at the time of tea.
By the time Root was out, he and Pope had contributed 146 runs together, and they had done so while England maintained an amazing run rate of 6.34. There is absolutely no doubt that when the Ashes start, the hosts will be getting ready to unleash the beast once more.