Pope scores 50 as England take lead against India in fourth Test

Ollie Pope marked his return to England duty with a long-awaited fifty as he guided England into a first-innings lead in the fourth Test against India at the Oval on Friday after a top-order collapse.

England were 227-7 at tea on the second day, 36 runs ahead of India's 191, with the intriguing five-match series all square at 1-1.

Pope, only recalled because Jos Buttler missed the match on paternity leave, was 74 not out on his Surrey home ground.

It was Pope's first half-century in 16 Test innings since a 62 against Pakistan in Manchester last year.

This knock also extended his excellent record at the Oval where, prior to Friday, he had scored 1,410 runs at an average of 100.71 in 18 first-class innings.

England were in deep trouble at 62-5 after losing two wickets early in the day. But Pope's partnerships of 89 with Jonny Bairstow (37) and 71 with Moeen Ali (35) wrested the initiative from India.

England resumed Friday on 53-3 after fit-again India all-rounder Shardul Thakur had struck a 31-ball fifty -- the fastest in terms of balls faced in a Test in England. That helped get India near 200 after they had collapsed to 127-7, with Chris Woakes the pick of the England bowlers.

England needed a significant innings from someone other than in-form captain Joe Root after the world's top-ranked Test batsman had been bowled by Umesh Yadav for 21 on Thursday.

Yadav, recalled with Thakur after India dropped fellow pacemen Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami, needed just 10 balls Friday to remove nightwatchman Craig Overton for his overnight score of one, with a flashing square cut caught by India captain Virat Kohli at first slip.

Dawid Malan, fresh from his 70 on England recall in an innings win at Headingley last week, had added just five runs when the left-hander, squared up by Yadav, was well caught by a diving Rohit Sharma at second slip.

Pope, after a skittish start, hit three fours in four balls off Thakur -- a classic on-drive followed by a clip through mid-on before a short delivery was pulled resoundingly through midwicket.

The runs were flowing and Bairstow brought up a fifty stand when he drove a Yadav half-volley through long-on for four.

Kohli, in the ongoing absence of star off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, yet to be selected this series, brought on slow left-armer Ravindra Jadeja in a bid to break the partnership.

It was Mohammed Siraj, however, who reduced England to 151-6 when Bairstow was lbw playing down the wrong line to a ball that nipped back off the pitch. But Pope leg-glanced the paceman for four to complete a 92-ball fifty -- the 23-year-old's sixth in a 20-Test career that has yielded a lone century.

Moeen, on 14, was struck on the toe by a Jasprit Bumrah yorker. But India, believing he had dug the ball out with his bat did not appeal, with replays suggesting the all-rounder might have been lbw.

The left-handed batsman, promoted to vice-captain in Buttler's absence, was in good touch before he gave his wicket away when he skied a catch to Sharma at cover off Jadeja.

Earlier, for the third match in a row, YouTube prankster Daniel Jarvis got on the field of play.

This time, not content with being on the outfield, he hurled a ball down the pitch before colliding with Bairstow at the non-striker's end.

Spectators were as unimpressed as Bairstow, with Jarvis, dressed in cricket whites, receiving a chorus of boos before he was eventually escorted off the field by security staff.