Pope Cements Claim to England Cricket's No 3 Role with Impressive 90 Against Lions

It's difficult to know how relevant of England's warm-up match will be remotely relevant when their Ashes contest starts a short distance away at Perth Stadium on Friday – a brief gap in geography or duration but light years away in importance and environment – but if it accomplished nothing more than strengthening Ollie Pope's assurance, that by itself has rendered the endeavor valuable.

England's No 3 – this fact is certainly completely certain – built on his first-innings ton by scoring a further 90 in the second innings, and the truly impressive was not so much the total of scored runs but the way in which they were scored. On occasion the young batsman appeared commanding, striking a twelve boundaries and a pair of maximums, connecting with the ball perfectly but with devilish intent.

This was just a practice match against a Lions squad that deployed a total of 11 pitchers across a match held in before a handful of spectators in a local ground, but it was still extremely noteworthy. For the record, England, set a target of 202 following the Lions declared their follow-on innings on 251 for six, succeeded by a margin of five wickets when Smith sped the team across the winning target with a stream of boundaries.

Crawley and Duckett, the remaining big first-innings performers, both were dismissed in the second innings, while Joe Root added further runs – 31 on this time – but was not enormously more convincing, then being puzzled and accordingly dismissed by Jacks. Harry Brook experienced an similar fate shortly after.

Shoaib Bashir – who ended the fixture having delivered 12 overs for either team – will have found some of the strokes he confronted quite aggressive. His initial six deliveries against the Lions went for 56, with Ben McKinney taking advantage to bowling that if not entirely poor was definitely not very intimidating.

By the conclusion the sixth spell of those deliveries, England's remaining three bowlers had conceded nearly exactly the same total of points – 57 – from 15, though Bashir turned a somewhat less giving as time passed, allowing 27 from his final six. He secured one dismissal, making a sharp, low-down grab, falling to his right, to finish Bethell's knock for 70, off 80 deliveries.

Jacob Bethell, compensating for scoring merely a small score in the first innings, was one of three players half-centurions in the Lions' top order. McKinney's performances from opening batsman were more consistent than those of their number three: he scored 66 in their first batting effort and improved by two in their second, using 61 balls over his fifty, with five and two maximums, each from Bashir's bowling. Bethell reached 68 then a mis-hit to Stokes at cover, who made a low grab at ankle height.

Jordan Cox showed like steadiness, and followed his initial innings' 53 with a further 57, at just over a run a ball. He produced some outstandingly beautiful shots en route, such as a drive down the ground and a hook against consecutive Carse balls to reach his half century.

Following his absence from the initial day of this fixture with a stomach upset and made just the smallest of efforts to the second day, Brydon Carse pitched brilliantly when finally provided the chance, with McKinney and Cox included in his three wickets.

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