Ollie Pope Reinforces Claim to England's Number Three Spot with Impressive 90 Versus Lions

It's hard to know how significant of the English team's preparatory game will end up being relevant when their Ashes series campaign begins a short distance away at the Perth venue on Friday – a short span in space or time but worlds away in significance and atmosphere – but if it accomplished only boosting Pope's confidence, that by itself has rendered the exercise worthwhile.

England's number three batsman – that much is undoubtedly completely certain – followed his initial innings century by adding a further 90 in the follow-up innings, and what was notable was less about the total of scored runs but the style in which they were made. At times the player seemed commanding, hitting a twelve fours and a pair of sixes, timing the ball sweetly but with fierce intent.

This was just a friendly versus a England Lions squad that employed exactly 11 pitchers throughout a game staged in amid a few dozen of spectators in a public park, but it was nevertheless very praiseworthy. Officially, the England team, chasing of 202 once the Lions closed their second innings on 251 for six, won by a margin of five wickets once Smith raced the team across the winning target with a series of boundaries.

Zak Crawley and Duckett, the other two significant first-innings' performers, both fell short in the second knock, while Joe Root scored additional runs – 31 on this time – but was not enormously more convincing, before being puzzled and subsequently dismissed by Will Jacks. Brook experienced an same end a little later.

Bashir – who concluded the match having delivered 12 overs for each side – will have encountered a portion of the strokes he bowled to rather challenging. His opening six deliveries against the Lions conceded 56, with McKinney tucking in to deliveries that if not entirely loose was definitely not very dangerous.

After the sixth spell of that period, England's three other pitchers had conceded almost precisely the identical total of runs – 57 – from 15, though Bashir grew a slightly less giving in time, allowing 27 from his final six. He secured a single wicket, holding a clever, low-down catch, falling to his right, to end Jacob Bethell's knock for 70, from 80 balls.

Jacob Bethell, making up for scoring just three runs in the initial innings, was among three half-centurions in the Lions team's top order. Ben McKinney's returns from opener were more consistent than the scores of their No 3: he notched 66 in their first innings and went two better in their second, taking 61 balls to reach his half-century, with five and two six-hit shots, both against Bashir's pitching. Bethell reached 68 before a mis-hit to Ben Stokes at cover position, who made a stooping catch at shin level.

Cox displayed like consistency, and backed up his initial innings' 53 with an additional 57, at slightly more than a run per delivery. He produced some remarkably beautiful hits during his innings, including a drive down the ground and a pull off successive Carse balls to reach his 50 runs.

Following his absence from the initial day of this game with a stomach issue and provided just the most minor of inputs to the second, Brydon Carse delivered superbly when at last given the shot, with Ben McKinney and Cox included in his three dismissals.

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