Unbeaten 91 can ease burden of bio-secure bubble, says Ollie Pope

NICK FRIEND: He shared an unbroken stand of 136 with Jos Buttler, who himself ended the day 56 not out, after the pair came together with the home side in some difficulty

Ollie Pope has admitted that his unbeaten 91 would ease the burden of life inside the bio-secure bubble.

Pope will go to bed nine runs short of a second Test century – and what would be his first in England – after an innings that developed with increasing authority on the first day of the deciding Test at Emirates Old Trafford.

He shared an unbroken stand of 136 with Jos Buttler, who himself ended the day 56 not out, after the pair came together with the home side in some difficulty, having lost four wickets inside the first 47 overs.

By his own admission, these were welcome runs for the Surrey batsman. In his first four innings of the series, he had made three scores of 12 and a fourth of 7. And while the 22-year-old is not exactly under pressure for his place, he confessed that the nature of the bio-secure environment made it less easy to deal with low scores.

“It’s a really nice feeling this evening because I’ve missed out in those first two games,” he said. “Not being able to get away, you roll back to your hotel after you’ve got out in the last two overs of the day, and you’re looking over a cricket ground.

“There’s no real escape: you can’t go out for dinner, you can’t go for a coffee, you can’t see your family. It isn’t easy; you can naturally think about your batting, think about your failure a bit more than normal, so to get a few runs today is a nice feeling.

“Hopefully, I can go on and make it a big one. It’s always a nice feeling. I think that’s part of cricket though; you’ve got to try and stay as level as you can, especially as a batter.

“There are as many bad days as good days, even for the best in the world, so you’ve got to try to deal with those bad days in the best way possible and in my mind, you’ve got to try and stay level, which is what I’m trying to get better at.

“You do have more time on your own, you do have a little bit more time to dwell over things.

“We’ve got a few different groups – some of the lads enjoy playing cards in the evenings, a lot of the lads play a bit of Xbox, a few of the lads just enjoy staying in and watching a film, a few of the lads get a Deliveroo. There’s still communication and stuff, we still stick together whether that be playing a game of cards or playing a bit of Xbox. We’re still doing some sort of thing together, which is nice. There’s always someone to chat to and always someone to have a laugh with.”

Pope added that he could sense a difference between when he first came to the crease and the latter stages of the day. Although Alzarri Joseph was left out for the off-spin of Rahkeem Cornwall, this is the third game in a short space of time for the seam triumvirate of Jason Holder, Shannon Gabriel and Kemar Roach.

Gabriel left the field briefly during the morning session and has now gone more than 50 overs in Manchester without taking a wicket.

“At the end because the wicket was playing pretty nicely for us, we tried to cash in while they did have a lot of overs in their legs,” Pope explained. “There was a slight difference in atmosphere between when I first got out to bat and then when I batted at the end.

“It’s not like they bowled badly at all – I don’t think they bowled badly. They still hit their areas, but I guess with that second new ball as well, when you do have two set batsmen it can be quite a nice time to bat. The noise was slightly different but they still had the same quality. Jos played really well as well; I think that helped the momentum of the game shift a little bit in our direction.”

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