Former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen heaped rich praise on Ollie Pope who scored 196 runs in the 2nd innings of the 1st Test match against India to help the visitors post a challenging 4th innings target of 231 runs at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium on Day 4.

Pope missed out on scoring his 2nd double hundred as he was dismissed by Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah when he was just 4 runs short. England finished with 420 runs in the 3rd innings as Pope was the last batter to be dismissed. England’s vice-captain left the field with every Indian player congratulating him. The Hyderabad crowd, which had a good English presence, gave a standing ovation to the batter, who singe-handedly put England in a position of strength after they conceded 190-run first innings lead. IND VS ENG DAY 4: LIVE SCORE

“Ollie Pope has come here and done what would normally make normal people feel like it was impossible. But it’s not impossible when you look at the way that they played and the style of play and how they’ve taken the attack to the Indian spinners,” Pietersen told Sports 18.

OLLIE POPE TURNS IT AROUND

Pope scored his 5th Test century to help the visitors put on a strong fightback. England were reeling at 163/5 with the top-order batters failing to make an impact and were still in deficit of India’s 1st innings lead. Pope formed a 112-run partnership with Ben Foakes and then a 64 and 80-run partnerships with lower-order batters Rehan Ahmed and Tom Hartley respectively.

Pope smashed the 4th-highest individual Test score by a visiting batter in India. He had previously scored only 154 runs in the previous 9 innings in India.

“It is an incredible achievement. It’s a remarkable achievement. I think the achievement signifies exactly how the dressing room feels and how the dressing room has felt for a very long time under this leadership. They don’t believe that anything is impossible. I was just talking about the fact that you have Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin, who have got statistically better numbers than Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh,” Pietersen said.

“And when you’ve got that sort of importance, and you’ve got that sort of control in Indian conditions, as those two have to whack them around the park over the last 24 hours like Ollie Pope has done, and what some of the batters have done in an unconventional manner is that there is a difference. And it is something where, as a former England player, you look at and go unbelievable. He’s what he’s also done with this,” Pietersen added.

England walked the talk by playing unorthodox cricket as most of their batters, especially Pope, put the Indian spinners off their rhythm by playing sweeps, reverse sweeps and a scoop shots.