Jarvo has made a few appearances this series, don’t know how he’s got on the pitch again: Ollie Pope

The second day’s play of The Oval Test between England and India yet again hogged the limelight due to pitch invader Daniel Jarvis, famously known as Jarvo 69. He ran onto the field when Jonny Bairstow and Ollie Pope were batting and collided with the former. Later, the officials arrested Jarvo for allegedly trying to assault Bairstow.

This is the third time that Jarvo has invaded the pitch. After apparently trying to come padded when India’s wicket fell on the third Test, this time, he breached the security personnel during the 34th over when pacer Umesh Yadav was bowling. Subsequently, the play was halted for five minutes before the security officials took him off the field.

Ollie Pope, who was going great guns and was poised to take his team to a good total, said he was not bothered about Jarvo breaking his concentration. “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.

Pope further opined that the art of batting is to switch on and off and, Jarvo’s intervention does not make a difference. “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 the next ball,” he added.

Indian bowling attack is very skilled: Ollie Pope

The returning Ollie Pope played beautifully and rescued England from a precarious position by scoring 81 runs. His knock gave the home side a vital lead of 99 runs. When quizzed on that special innings, Pope said he had good conversations with Joe Root, coaches and other senior players. He also felt that the Indian attack is very skillful and one needs to be patient while dealing with it.

“I have watched how Rooty (Joe Root) has played in the series, how he’s gone about it. Had good conversations with coaches and senior players; I think I recognized 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.” Pope concluded by saying that as a batter adaption is important.

“I recognized 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.