Ollie Pope was a bit mystified that ‘Jarvo 69’ once again managed to make his way onto the pitch.© AFP
England batsman Ollie Pope said he doesn’t know how Daniel Jarvis — also known as Jarvo 69 — once again managed to halt the proceedings by making his way onto the pitch on Day 2 of the ongoing fourth Test match against India. ‘Jarvo 69’, who entered the Oval ground on the second day of the ongoing fourth Test between India and England here on Friday, has been arrested on suspicion of assault after he collided with Jonny Bairstow. The incident took place during the 34th over of the England innings which was being bowled by Umesh Yadav and the match had to be halted for five minutes.
Pope said Jarvo’s appearance didn’t affect him as he was only focused on his batting even between the breaks.
“Jarvo has made a few appearances this series. I don’t know how he’s got on the pitch again, to be honest. I try to stay in my bubble and don’t let it affect me. Just block it out,” said Pope in a virtual press conference.
“He just stops the play for five minutes every time he comes on. You’ve just got to try and block it out. The art of batting is to switch on and off — you try to switch off in between. Whatever happens before or between balls, I try to get into a good place for that next ball,” he added.
Pope rescued England from 53/4 as he scored a gutsy 81-run knock before the hosts were bowled out for 290.
Talking about his knock, the England batsman said, “I have watched how Rooty (Joe Root) has played in this series, how he’s gone about it. Had good conversations with coaches and senior players; I think I recognised that the Indian attack is very skilled. Their main course is to attack that knee roll.”
“As a batter, you’re going to get out somehow whether the team is attacking the fifth stump as much as they can or whether they attack the knee roll as much as they can.
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“I recognised that you’ve got to adapt your game accordingly. That’s what I’ve done; probably decided a couple of weeks ago that that was how I was going to go about my business,” he added.
After bowling out England, Indian openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul took India to 43/0 at Stumps on Day 2. The visitors still trail by 56 runs.
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