etvbharat
etvbharat|19-06-2025
Nottingham: Ollie Pope created a new world record for scoring career's first 8 hundreds against 8 different Test teams. He achieved the historic milestone on the opening day of the ongoing one-off Test between England and Zimbabwe at the Trent Bridge on Thursday, May 22.
England posted 498/3, their fourth-highest team total on the opening day of a Test, courtesy of hundreds from both openers and a no-bowler. 3 batter Pope. While southpaw Ben Duckett (140) continued his form in red-ball format with a run-a-ball hundred at his home ground, Zak Crawley (124 off 171 balls) got some under his belt after struggling to time the ball earlier in the innings.
The 27-year-old made the headlines after his senior batting partner Joe Root nudged past 13,000 Test runs.
Pope, who was placed in the Test team, was under scrutiny, raced to his eighth Test century in 109 balls and achieved the historic milestone. Pope’s all Test hundreds have all come up against different oppositions and become the first batter to record his first eight Test hundreds against different countries. Pope is overall the 30th Test batter to hit centuries against eight different countries.If he manages to score a century against Australia down under in the Ashes last year, Pope will become the first Test batter from England to have Test hundreds against nine different teams. However, a total of 16 players across other teams have managed to achieve similar milestone including cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar, Jacques Kallis, Ricky Ponting, Kumar Sangakkara, Rahul Dravid, Brian Lara, Younis Khan, Mahela Jayawardene, Kane Williamson, Steve Waugh, Matthew Hayden, Gary Kirsten, Adam Gilchrist, Marvan Atapattu, Angela Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal.