The Australian leg-spinner Lloyd Pope now he is the youngest ever bowler to take seven wickets in an innings in a Sheffield Shield game after he returned with figures of 7/87 against Queensland at Adelaide.
The leg-spinner, who was playing only his second first-class game, bowled a fantastic spell that bamboozled a strong opposition batting line up and helped South Australia clean them up for 231.
Pope’s achievement becomes more special considering the fact that one of his seven wickets was that of Joe Burns, who was well set and batting on 64. The spinner’s other wickets were Sam Heazlett, Jack Wildermuth, Jimmy Peirson, Michael Neser, Mitchell Swepson and Brendan Doggett – four of whom have played for Australia.
Pope, who burst onto the scene at the ICC Under-19 World Cup 2018, with this performance has bettered the record of Doug Walters from the 1964/65 season when he finished with figures of 7/63 for New South Wales against South Australia.
The spinner caught everyone’s eye when he spun a web around England during the U-19 World Cup. Pope finished with figures of 8/35 as the English were bowled out for 128 in Queenstown and Australia stormed into the semi-finals.
The young man will take a lot of confidence from this performance after a disappointing debut in first-class cricket against New South Wales, and could take only two wickets in the entire game.
