Ollie Pope paid tribute to a “phenomenal” England performance and “two greedy Yorkshiremen” after his side recorded another magical overseas win in Multan.
Some of the country’s most astonishing victories on the road have come recently, in Rawalpindi two years ago when they maintained a brutal scoring rate of 6.93 to conquer a dead pitch and in January in Hyderabad, where they overturned a 190-run deficit at halfway to stun India.
Now their Asian odyssey is a trilogy, after they inflicted another sensational defeat on Pakistan in their own back yard.
England spent 149 energy-sapping overs in the field at the start of the match, watching their hosts stack up 556 runs but somehow showed the resolve to respond with 823 for seven and a lead of 267.
Harry Brook feasted on 317, England’s highest individual score in 34 years, and Joe Root made a career-best 262 to set the game up for the bowlers and by the fifth morning skipper Pope was celebrating victory by an innings and 47 runs.
It is the first time any team had ever won by such a margin having conceded 500.
“Everyone knows what a special win that was. It’s been a serious effort,” said Pope.
“Whenever you get 550, whatever pitch it is, it’s always a good score, but we also knew if we batted like we know we can then we can go big.
“We’ve got two greedy Yorkshiremen and they did exactly that. What they did was seriously special and a joy to watch.
“It’s been phenomenal. You take confidence from those previous performances when you’re that far behind in the game but the main thing for us in that changing room is that we try not to think about the end result too much during the game.
“Especially if we’re behind we know if we can rock up, give absolutely 100 per cent, chase the ball as hard as we can in the field and do those small things, then the bigger things will look after themselves.
“That’s what has allowed us to go and put together these performances and good wins in situations where, in the past, we potentially wouldn’t have got over the line.”
Pope endured a mixed week, elevated by his experience of leading a famous win that will go down in the history books but slightly chastened having contributed nothing more than a two-ball duck to the fourth-highest Test total of all time.
“We made 800 and I got a donut,” he noted with a rueful smile.
“From a personal point you want to put in those scores, that’s always the case for a batter, but it was a joy to watch the way Joe Root and Harry Brook played.”
Pope will now wait to find out if his captaincy services are required for the second Test starting on Tuesday at the same ground. Regular skipper Ben Stokes opted against risking himself for the opening game but is making solid progress in his comeback from a torn hamstring and is expected to push to be cleared.
Whether that would be as a specialist batter or a fully-fledged all-rounder remains to be seen, but if he was considered as a bowling option the workload could be a demanding one. England, therefore, could have an interesting selection meeting in front of them, all of which hinges on Stokes’ condition.
“Fingers crossed he’s all good. I’m not sure,” said Pope.
“He has had a good week training, but I will be ready if not.”
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