England's cricket team have started their summer season with a bang! Opener batters Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett scored their respective centuries, and now Ollie Pope has joined them, making it just the 17th occasion in the history of Test cricket when the top three batters scored tons. (Day 1 Blog)
Asked to bat first, Crawley and Duckett added 231 runs for the first wicket at the Trent Bridge in Nottingham. Zimbabwe bowlers looked hopeless when Wessly Madhevere was introduced into the attack, and he dismissed Duckett in his first over. He made 140 runs off 134 balls, including 20 fours and two sixes.
Crawley played with patience and completed his fifth Test ton before Sikandar Raza dismissed him LBW. He made 124 runs off 171 balls, including 14 fours.
Then Ollie Pope took no time to reach his eighth Test century and is still batting with Joe Root.
The last time numbers 1, 2 and 3 scored centuries in a Test cricket match was in the Galle Test in 2023 between Sri Lanka and Ireland. The top four batters, namely Nishan Madushka, Dimuth Karunaratne, Kusal Mendis and Angelo Mathews, scored tons in the first inning of Sri Lanka's batting in that match.
The first incident of hundreds by top-three batters happened way back in 1924 in Test cricket when England's Jack Hobbs, Herbert Sutcliffe and Frank Woolley scored respective centuries against South Africa at the Lord's Cricket Ground.
England have a strong hold on this four-day Test match on the first day itself. England's leading run-scorer in Test cricket, Joe Root, is batting with Pope, and some talented batters, including the skipper Ben Stokes, Harry Brook and Jamie Smith, are next to bat.
