It was a special Friday for Ollie Pope. Since replacing the injured Ben Stokes as England captain at the start of the series against Sri Lanka, he had managed just 30 runs in the previous four innings. But Ollie Pope returned to form on his home Oval ground with a maiden hundred as England captain on Friday, the opening day of the third Test against Sri Lanka. When play was called off for the day due to bad light, Pope had scored 103 runs per ball and England were comfortably 221-3.

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

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

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

Duckett praised his captain for ignoring comments from the likes of former England captain Michael Vaughan, who questioned whether Pope was up to the competing demands of leadership and batting as a No.3.

“This shouldn’t be the case, but there’s been quite a bit of noise about Popey in the last few weeks,” Duckett told reporters after the election victory.

“To fend that off and score incredible hundreds was so good,” he added after Pope’s 12th first-class hundred on his home ground in Surrey.

A rare ray of hope for the struggling Sri Lanka was the dismissal of Joe Root with 13 points shortly before tea.

Root had just scored two hundreds in a 190-run win at Lord’s, setting a new English record of 34 Test centuries.

England, who swept the West Indies 3-0 earlier this season, are seeking their first clear win in a home Test season since 2004, when Vaughan recorded seven consecutive victories.

Duckett was soon in his element and the left-hander hit four runs after two throws from Milan Rathnayake.

The situation was different for the provisional opening batsman Dan Lawrence, who is a middle-order batsman by profession.

With the injured Zak Crawley missing, Lawrence had to resort to the new ball in this series.

He had made just five when he faltered on a short delivery from Lahiru Kumara and hit a simple catch with the top edge into the gully.

Number three Pope, who scored a hundred against the West Indies at Trent Bridge in July, made a stylish start by catching a loose ball from fast bowler Rathnayake for four and then hitting a six off Kumara.

Meanwhile, 29-year-old Duckett scored a quick fifty off just 48 balls, including seven fours.

Although the floodlights were on, the umpires decided it was too dangerous to continue and stopped play due to poor lighting when England were leading 76-1 after 15 overs. It then started to rain and play did not resume until 14:10 GMT.

It wasn’t long before Duckett attacked Kumara with a six over fine leg and an uppercut high over third ma, as Sri Lanka’s four-man pace attack struggled to maintain a challenging line and length.

But Duckett, who was just about to make his fourth century in 26 Tests, was out when he missed a flamboyant scoop from Rathnayake and hit wicket-keeper Dinesh Chandimal as England led 140-2.

“When you play like that for a while, you can’t really blame yourself, but I obviously missed a hundred in the Test,” said Duckett.

“Maybe this is a learning day for me, but I’ve been thinking about playing this knock in Test cricket for a long time. It felt like the right option.”

The 26-year-old Pope was lucky with a top-edge six off Kumara, but the persistent paceman got Root to hook the ball to fine leg, where Vishwa Fernando held onto the ball despite slipping on the wet turf.

Surrey favourite Pope, who was 84 not out at tea, scored his maiden Test hundred at the Oval when he smashed a stylish square drive past Asitha Fernando for his 13th four in 102 balls, including two sixes.

In doing so, Pope, who was playing his 49th game at this level, became the first player to score his first seven Test centuries against different teams.

With AFP inputs