1st In 147 Years: England's Ollie Pope Sets Historic Record. Not Even Don Bradman Or Sachin Tendulkar Achieved It

It was a special Friday for Ollie Pope. He had managed a mere 30 runs in four previous innings since succeeding the injured Ben Stokes as England skipper at the start of the series against Sri Lanka. But he returned to form in style Ollie Pope returned to form on his Oval home ground with a first hundred as England captain on Friday's opening day of the third Test against Sri Lanka. But when bad light ended play for the day Pope was a run-a-ball 103 not out, with England well-placed on 221-3.

It was Pope's seventh seventh century in Test cricket. Interestingly, each of his first seven centuries came against different opponents - a first in the 147-year history of Test cricket.

Sri Lanka, already 2-0 down in this three-match series, failed to make the most of overcast conditions and a green-tinged pitch after captain Dhananjaya de Silva won the toss.

And England should arguably have had another century-maker on Friday, with opener Ben Duckett, not for the first time, giving his wicket away after making 86. 

Duckett praised his skipper for ignoring the comments from the likes of former England captain Michael Vaughan, who questioned whether Pope could cope with the competing demands of leadership and batting at No 3.  

"It shouldn't be the case but there has been quite a lot of noise around Popey in the last couple of weeks," Duckett told reporters after stumps.

"To block that out and score an incredible hundred was so good," he added following Pope's 12th first-class hundred on his Surrey home ground.

A rare bright spot for struggling Sri Lanka was the dismissal of Joe Root for 13 shortly before tea.

Root was fresh from two hundreds in a 190-run win at Lord's where he set a new England record of 34 Test centuries.  

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