England's Ollie Pope insisted the good fortune he enjoyed while compiling a hundred in the second Test against the West Indies on Thursday made up for a lean start to the county season. Pope top-scored with 121, his sixth Test hundred, as England were dismissed for 416 on an eventful first day in Nottingham.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
But he was dropped on 46 and 54, by Alick Athanaze and Jason Holder.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"I'm happy with the way I went about my stuff and obviously there was a nice couple of drops, which always helps," said Pope, who plays his domestic cricket for English county champions Surrey.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"No one means to drop them but cricket goes in swings and roundabouts. The luck wasn't with me in my county stint.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"I wouldn't say I had doubts but sometimes you think, 'Why's everyone else in the country scoring runs in county cricket but England's number three isn't going out and averaging 50 this summer?'<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"That's just cricket for you, you want to go and score a hundred every day but sometimes it doesn't work that way."<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Pope, though, was glad to have a "lucky charm' in Arsenal goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale among the crowd at Trent Bridge on Thursday.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Gunners fan Pope is friends with Ramsdale, a member of the England squad that recently finished runners-up at Euro 2024.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Ramsdale was also in the stands when Pope hit a double century against Ireland at Lord's last year, with the England cricket vice-captain adding: "I'm obviously a big Arsenal fan so I go and support him a fair bit. He seems to be my lucky charm on the cricket pitch as well!.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"He's come to two other games and in one of them I scored 200. It always happens to be the day he's there that I get the runs, so I think he can come more often."<\/p>\r\n\r\n
A rare highlight on a tough day for the West Indies, battling to avoid going 2-0 down in a three-Test series, came when Kevin Sinclair marked his dismissal of Harry Brook with a spectacular somersault.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"That's my trademark celebration, from where I come from," said the Guyanese off-spinner, only called into the team on Thursday morning after Gudakesh Motie withdrew because of illness.<\/p>\r\n\r\n