The Vitality T20 Blast 2022 is currently underway in England and after a very intense and entertaining round robin stage, we’ve moved on to the knockout games. Surrey vs Yorkshire was the first quarter final of the tournament and there were some team changes for both, with call ups to the national side and those released from the Test squad back to play for their respective counties.
One such player who came straight from the 5th Test against India to play for Surrey in this clash was Ollie Pope. Someone who is often regarded as one of the up and coming best batsmen in the country, Pope hasn’t been among the runs in recent weeks and months, and he was not very impressive in today’s important clash for Surrey either.
Ollie Pope plays weird sweep to be dismissed
When he played the 5th Test against India, he made scores of 10 and 0 but had a couple of big scores against New Zealand prior to that game. A lot was expected from him after a poor outing against India, to help his side make a semi final at the 2022 T20 Blast. They were chasing 161 to win against Yorkshire and Pope came out to bat at 57/2.
They didn’t need to panic as there were plenty of batters to come and the asking rate wasn’t too high either. Pope was batting against Pakistani international spinner Shadab Khan in the 11th over and he smashed him for a boundary on the fifth ball of the over. From there, he needed to just rotate the strike but he decided to follow it up with some more runs.
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Immediately after the boundary ball, he decided to walk out of his crease against Khan who was turning the ball away from Pope. The batsman seemed very unclear as to what he wanted to do on that delivery but decided to play a slog sweep towards the legside. However, it turned out to be a very ugly hoick and he had no control of the shot whatsoever.
The ball went high into the air but had no chance of going over the ropes as he was caught by Matthew Revis before the rope. In such an important game, you would’ve expected a much better innings and a more responsible one too, from one of your top batsmen who is just returning from an international stint as well. However, it wasn’t to be.
Pope was dismissed for 10(8) and left the side reeling in their chase on this target. Fans immediately took to social media to express their displeasure for the irresponsible shot he played. One person tweeted, “Good to see Ollie Pope brought his test form into the T20” while another said, “Harry Brook should be batting at 3 for England instead of Ollie Pope #overrated”. See below:
Harry Brook is clear of Ollie Pope, just the ECB’s golden child 🤷🏻♂️ #T20Blast
— Will (@BigMirfUnit180) July 6, 2022
Good to see Ollie Pope brought his test form into the T20
— Terry (@terryhtfc89) July 6, 2022
Harry Brook should be batting at 3 for England instead of Ollie Pope #overrated
— Joe Robinson (@joerob_96) July 6, 2022
Jamie Overton and Laurie Evans cleared up at the back end to make a good 6th wicket partnership and almost take Surrey to victory, but they failed to score 5 runs in the final over which means Pope won’t get a chance of redemption in the semi final! For updates on this story and other cricket and sports news from around the world, stay tuned to ReadScoops.com…
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