Ollie Pope Cements Claim to England's No 3 Role with Strong 90 Against Lions

It is hard to know how significant of England's practice game will be remotely meaningful when their Ashes series battle begins not far at Perth Stadium on Friday – no distance in geography or duration but light years away in significance and environment – but if it managed nothing more than strengthening Pope's self-belief, that alone has rendered the exercise worthwhile.

The English side's number three batsman – this fact is certainly completely established – built on his first-innings century by notching a further 90 in the follow-up innings, and the most notable was less about the total of runs but the style in which they were accumulated. On occasion the player seemed commanding, hitting a twelve fours and a pair of sixes, connecting with the ball beautifully but with fierce purpose.

It was only a exhibition game versus a England Lions team that used a total of 11 bowlers across a contest held in front of a few dozen of people in a open field, but it was nonetheless hugely impressive. To note, the England team, set a target of 202 after the Lions closed their second innings on 251 for six, won by a margin of five wickets when Smith sped the team over the winning target with a flurry of boundaries.

Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, the remaining big first-innings performers, both failed in the second innings, while Joe Root made several more points – 31 on this instance – but was not significantly more dominant, then being bemused and subsequently bowled by Will Jacks. Brook experienced an identical outcome shortly after.

Bashir – who finished the game having delivered 12 bowling spells for each side – will have found some of the strokes he bowled to rather hostile. His opening six deliveries against the Lions cost 56, with McKinney feasting to deliveries that if not completely poor was certainly not overly dangerous.

At the end the sixth of those overs, England's remaining three bowlers had given away nearly exactly the identical total of runs – 57 – from 15, though the bowler became a slightly less generous later on, conceding 27 from his remaining six. He took one dismissal, making a smart, diving grab, falling to his right side, to conclude Jacob Bethell's knock for 70, from 80 balls.

Jacob Bethell, making up for managing only three in the first innings, was among three players fifty-scorers in the Lions team's top order. Ben McKinney's performances from opener were more reliable than those of their number three: he scored 66 in their first batting effort and improved by two in their follow-up, facing 61 deliveries for his half-century, with five fours and a couple maximums, each against Bashir's's pitching. Bethell got to 68 prior to a mishit to Ben Stokes at cover, who made a low grab at shin level.

Cox exhibited similar consistency, and followed his first-innings 53 with a further 57, at just over a scoring rate of one. There were a few exceptionally beautiful shots en route, featuring a straight drive and a pull shot from consecutive Brydon Carse balls to achieve his fifty.

Following his absence from the opening day of this match with a illness and made merely the smallest of efforts to the second, Brydon Carse bowled excellently when eventually afforded the chance, with Ben McKinney and Cox included in his three scalps.

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