8 hours ago
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Joe Root was denied a hundred on Thursday night after a ladybird attack on Ben Stokes took time out of the game and left Root stranded on 99 not out overnight.
Late in the day, play was disrupted with Stokes on strike after a swarm of ladybirds surrounded the outfield, while Jasprit Bumrah was pictured trying to get away from the insects on a day when only 83 of the allocated 90 overs were bowled.
'No I haven't (seen that before). It's a first and the crowd got that. I didn't even know why we stopped,' said Ollie Pope, when asked about the incident.
After winning the toss, England still ended the day in a healthy position and will resume on 251 for four with Stokes unbeaten at the other end on 39. Though the England captain looked in obvious pain with a groin injury as he struggled in the evening session.
'Fingers crossed it's nothing too serious but clearly we've got a big test over the next four days and another big two Test matches coming up too so it's important to try and manage him and we'll see how he pulls up (in the morning),' said Pope. 'That's partially one of my roles (as vice-captain) to make sure he doesn't push himself to a ridiculous place with whatever he's dealing with at the moment,' he added.
India also have a major injury concern of their own with Rishabh Pant injuring his finger keeping wicket and spending most of the day off the field as Dhruv Jurel came on as a substitute keeper. The tourists will check on Pant's fitness on Friday morning.
A ladybird attack left England players scrambling as play was stopped on day one of the third Test against India
Ben Stokes was on strike when the bugs struck as he enjoyed a healthy partnership with Joe Root at Lord's
India bowler Jasprit Bumrah was seen trying to get away from the birds while in the outfield
It means play was stopped an Joe Root was left on 99 not out overnight going into day two
Pope was dropped off his first ball and went on to score 44 as he shared a third-wicket partnership of 109 with Root. And Pope insisted that Root will naturally have a sleepless night.
'I don't think he's the best sleeper anyway,' said Pope. 'Obviously he would have loved to have walked off with a hundred but the bloke's got 36 of them so I don't think he'll be too sleepless. His plans will be to try and make it a monster innings so he'll get his head down for sure' he added.
And Pope admitted that England had to adapt their ways after an unusually slow day at Lord's, where they scored at just over three an over.
'It's not necessarily the way we're used to going about a first innings but it's a pretty good score at the minute,' said Pope. 'We'd have liked more runs but the nature of the surface and the way the Indian attack bowled was pretty good throughout. It's a day that we'll take but we had to adapt the way we play. Hopefully it's a score that we can really kick on from and make it north of 400 and towards 500,' he added.
