Pope Cements Position to England Cricket's No 3 Spot with Strong 90 Against Lions

It's hard to determine how relevant of England's practice game will end up being meaningful when their Ashes series contest starts not far at Perth Stadium on the coming Friday – a short span in geography or duration but ages away in significance and environment – but if it achieved only strengthening Ollie Pope's confidence, that alone has rendered the exercise worthwhile.

The English side's number three batsman – that point is surely completely certain – built on his first-innings ton by scoring another 90 in the follow-up innings, and the truly remarkable was not so much the total of scored runs but the style in which they were made. On occasion the 27-year-old appeared commanding, hitting a twelve fours and a pair of sixes, timing the ball beautifully but with devilish determination.

It was merely a exhibition game against a Lions squad that used a total of 11 bowlers across a match played in before a few dozen of people in a open field, but it was nonetheless very noteworthy. To note, the England team, needing of 202 once the Lions declared their follow-on innings on 251 for six, won by a margin of five wickets when Smith hurried the team across the conclusion with a stream of boundaries.

Crawley and Duckett, the two other significant first-innings' successes, both failed in the second innings, while Root scored further runs – 31 on this occasion – but was far from more convincing, then being confused and accordingly out by Will Jacks. Harry Brook met an same fate soon afterwards.

Bashir – who ended the fixture having bowled 12 overs for either team – will have encountered some of the batting he bowled to quite hostile. His initial six deliveries against the Lions conceded 56, with McKinney taking advantage to deliveries that if not exactly poor was surely not very intimidating.

After the sixth spell of that period, the English side's remaining three pitchers had conceded roughly the same amount of points – 57 – from 15, though the bowler turned a little less giving in time, conceding 27 from his remaining six. He secured one dismissal, holding a clever, low grab, diving to his right, to end Bethell's batting stint for 70, off 80 balls.

Bethell, compensating for scoring just a small score in the opening knock, was one of a trio of fifty-scorers in the Lions team's leading batsmen. McKinney's returns from opening batsman were more reliable than the scores of their No 3: he scored 66 in their initial knock and scored 68 in their follow-up, facing 61 balls over his fifty, with five and two sixes, each against Bashir's's deliveries. Jacob Bethell reached 68 then a poor shot to Ben Stokes at cover, who made a stooping grab at shin level.

Jordan Cox showed comparable reliability, and backed up his initial innings' 53 with another 57, at just over a scoring rate of one. He played some exceptionally handsome hits on the way, featuring a drive down the ground and a pull shot off back-to-back Carse balls to attain his 50 runs.

Having missed the initial day of this match with a stomach upset and made just the least significant of inputs to the second, Carse delivered superbly when at last given the opportunity, with Ben McKinney and Cox included in his three wickets.

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