England captain Ollie Pope credited the veteran Joe Root and Harry Brook for their stunning performance in the team’s massive Test win in Multan. Both batters smashed career-best scores and they were involved in a record-breaking 454-run partnership as England posted a mammoth 823 for 7 in their first innings. However, England scored their runs at 5.48 runs to the over, a rate that helped them get enough of a lead in their win as well.
“I think the pace at which they batted is crucial for that and you kinda need that on these flat pitches as we saw last time around at Pakistan,” Pope told Sky Sports. “They play such different games but they both score at a pretty good rate. Obviously, the way Brooky uses power and then Rooty has kinda got a cushion on his bat so he just sticks with twos. But I think going in last night, they [Pakistan] would have been knackered from chasing the ball around and the way they played was just phenomenal.”
Meanwhile, England head coach Brendon McCullum had told Sky Sports earlier that Pakistan’s 556 was under par on the flat Multan pitch as well. Ollie Pope, however, begged to differ and shared that he had faith in his batters to go out and do well.
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“Whenever you get 550, whatever pitch it is, it is always a good score. But, we also knew if we bat with anything like we know we can, then we know that we can go, we can go really big. And obviously, we’ve got two greedy Yorkshiremen and they did exactly that. Obviously, the skills they showed and the fitness they showed as well. The fact that we knew we needed a massive score kept them driving, sort of driving towards those massive massive numbers and massive credit to them for putting us in a position to win that game,” he said.
Meanwhile, Pope missed out on scoring any runs due to an amazing catch at mid-wicket by Aamer Jamal as well. He said that he might have felt envious earlier on during his career, but now he feels good seeing his teammates succeed. He also added that he was looking forward to the next two games to make some match-winning contributions as well.
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“Yeah, absolutely. I think when I was a bit younger, early on in my professional career, that would have been a situation I would have not hated because we’re in a great position but in my mind I would have thought ‘ugh, why can’t that be me’ but I was fortunate enough to make some runs in the last game [Oval Test vs Sri Lanka] and I’ll look at the next two games to make some match-winning performance. But I loved every bit of watching the 2 Yorkshiremen bat, what they did was seriously special, it was a joy to watch and very pleased for them,” he further added.
“We’ve got a few days off our feet now, we’ll keep it as relaxed as possible. I know there’s always that way of looking at things. But obviously, there’s been Matt Potts on the sidelines who’s been bowling lovely and he’s just waiting for his go. Ben Stokes is also looking to come back and play as well. I don’t know. I’m not 100% sure [if he’ll play the next Test]. He’s been training very well this week and he’s as keen as ever to get playing again. Fingers crossed for everyone, he’s all good,” Ollie Pope concluded.
