Manchester Test: Ollie Pope shows resistance against West Indies pacers on day one

Manchester [UK], July 25 (ANI): England batsman Ollie Pope showed resistance against a fiery West Indies pace attack on the first day of the third and final Test at the Emirates Old Trafford Stadium here on Friday.
Bad light played spoilsport towards the end of day one and stumps were called off early with England scoring 258/4 post early hiccups.
West Indies won the toss and elected to field first. The visitors got off to a solid start with Kemar Roach dismissing Dominic Sibley in the very first over.
Roston Chase provided the second breakthrough when he hit the stumps from backward point to run out England skipper Joe Root on 17 runs.
Rory Burns, along with Ben Stokes stitched a brief 45-run stand before Roach provided the breakthrough by bowling Stokes with England at 92/3.
Burns too departed after scoring a half-century with England reeling at 122/4. Pope and Jos Buttler then played cautiously to consolidate the home side's innings.
Pope also scored a half-century after hitting a cover drive for four. Meanwhile, Buttler smashed two sixes off Rahkeem Cornwall to take England past 200. The right-handed batsman got to his first Test half-century since last year's Ashes.
Pope and Buttler will resume their innings from 91 and 56 runs, respectively on day two. (ANI)

Raj Kantak

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