On a wholly one-sided second day of England’s Test against Ireland at Lord’s, Ollie Pope crashed his first Test double century and Ben Duckett assisted himself to 182.

Pope’s 205 off 208 balls is the quickest Test double in England has ever been made, and Duckett narrowly missed being just the sixth player to get 200 in fewer than 200 balls.

In ideal batting conditions, England destroyed the Ireland attack with Joe Root scoring 56 runs at almost a run per delivery.

After their own astounding 506-4 on the opening day of the first Test against Pakistan in December, England amassed 524-4 declared, surpassing 500 in just 80 overs, which is the second-fastest score in Test history.

With a massive deficit of 352, Ireland’s main goal was to avoid going down in defeat within two days.

Josh Tongue, an England debutant, claimed his first and second Test wickets in his first over, falling to Peter Moor and Andrew Balbirnie, making that a serious possibility.

When James McCollum hurt his right ankle attempting to avoid a bouncer, Tongue, 25, was also the bowler, essentially leaving the Irish 25-3.

Tongue then caught Paul Stirling down the leg side during a tough stretch, but Harry Tector and Lorcan Tucker helped Ireland get to 97-3 at the finish line, still 255 down.

Pope looks Ashes performs well after last time’s setback Carnage in predicted mismatch
It was inevitable that the home team would score as many runs as they wished with England 152-1 at the halfway point and 20 runs behind Ireland’s first-innings 172.

ADVERTISEMENT

And indeed, there was bloodshed. England’s batters gorged themselves against an inexperienced assault without any form of cutting edge on a flat pitch in the bright sun.

England was able to score 372 runs at nearly seven an over with no exertion, so this was simply Test cricket in name. It was difficult to remain impartial toward the Irish, whose mission of halting the English juggernaut has proven to be beyond the capabilities of much stronger teams.

When England gained possession of the ball as a result of Tongue’s poisonous 3-27, the mismatch remained.

Before Balbirnie cut behind, Tongue’s first ball left Moor out by lb. When McCollum swiveled to dodge a short ball in Tongue’s second over, he collapsed to the ground in apparent agony before being helped off the field and transported from the scene by ambulance.

Before a review revealed a glove down the side of Tector’s thigh, Stirling at least maintained his composure. Tongue then resumed his viciousness by striking Tucker in the helmet. When the mercy of the close arrived, Tector had fought to a score of 33 and Tucker to a score of 21.

Pope and Duckett enjoy a run feast Pope and Duckett are two of the numerous success stories in this period of the England Test team. Pope, who was promoted to number three last summer, and Duckett, who was called back to open the batting during the winter, are both examples of this.

Duckett set the tone for the following two sessions by cutting the first ball of the day for four. Before lunch, England scored 173, then between lunch and tea, they scored another 178.

In his second Test century, Duckett sliced and clipped the seamers before sweeping and slog-sweeping Andy McBrine’s spin. The left-hander became the first batter at Lord’s since 1924 to score 100 runs before lunch by going from his overnight total of 60 to 161 at lunch.

Before inside-edging a drive at Graham Hume onto his own stumps, he was on track to score the fastest double century in a Test in this country. This ended a 252-run partnership with Pope.

Pope, who batted beautifully and hared between the wickets, won the record instead. His hundred partnership with Root took just 79 balls, making it England’s third-fastest partnership ever. Root started hitting reverse-scoops as early as the 12th ball he faced.

After Alastair Cook, Root became the second England batsman to 11,000 Test runs when he reached the age of 52.

After tea, while charging McBrine, he was bowled, allowing Pope to reach 200 with a loft over the long-on boundary, his third six.

Pope’s stumping on the following ball led to the declaration. The overall run rate for England was 6.34, which is the greatest run rate ever for a home Test innings of more than 20 overs and the second-highest run rate globally for an innings of at least 50 overs.

Ben Duckett, an England hitter, said to Test Match Special, “I don’t think we learned a great deal”: Back yard moments like those are what little children dream of. It truly hasn’t hit me yet how fantastic the day has been. It was special to do it and have my family present to watch it because they were here. To bat with Popey in that partnership was great.

“The way Ben [Duckett] and Ollie [Pope] played took the sting out of the game,” said Ireland spinner Andy McBrine on TMS. Over the next two days, we have a lot of work to accomplish.

Everyone wants to play Test cricket, which we love doing. There are a lot of folks that would love to be here that you could ask. We shall treasure each minute.

Niall O’Brien, a former Ireland wicketkeeper, said of TMS: “It was terrible viewing. In Test cricket, runs are typically scarce, therefore I give respect to England because they are ruthless.

On TMS, Michael Vaughan, a former England captain, said, “England have been terrific – extremely professional. They played cricket in a way that I fully anticipated. I knew they would try to score more than six runs per over when I had the bat in my hand.