Ollie Pope Reinforces Status to England Cricket's No 3 Spot with Impressive 90 Versus Lions

It's tough to gauge how significant of the English team's warm-up fixture will prove relevant when their Ashes battle begins 10km away at Perth Stadium on the coming Friday – a short span in geography or duration but light years away in import and mood – but if it managed only boosting Pope's self-belief, that by itself has rendered the exercise beneficial.

England's No 3 – that much is undoubtedly absolutely established – followed his first-innings century by adding an additional 90 in the second innings, and the truly notable was not so much the quantity of scored runs but the style in which they were accumulated. On occasion the young batsman seemed dominant, hitting a dozen fours and a couple of maximums, hitting the ball perfectly but with aggressive determination.

It was just a practice match against a Lions team that used fully 11 bowlers across a match held in front of a handful of spectators in a open field, but it was still hugely noteworthy. To note, England, chasing of 202 following the Lions declared their follow-on innings on 251 for six, won by a margin of five wickets once Jamie Smith sped the team across the finish line with a flurry of boundaries.

Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, the other two significant first-innings achievers, both failed in the follow-up, while Joe Root made further points – 31 on this time – but was not enormously more assured, then being bemused and duly bowled by Will Jacks. Brook experienced an same fate a little later.

Bashir – who concluded the game having bowled 12 overs for both teams – will have faced part of the hitting he confronted quite hostile. His initial six overs against the Lions conceded 56, with Ben McKinney tucking in to bowling that if not exactly loose was certainly far from threatening.

After the sixth of those overs, England's remaining three pitchers had given away almost precisely the equivalent number of runs – 57 – from 15, though the bowler became a little less leaky as time passed, conceding 27 from his remaining six. He secured a single wicket, holding a clever, diving grab, falling to his right side, to conclude Bethell's knock for 70, from 80 balls.

Jacob Bethell, compensating for scoring merely a small score in the first innings, was among a trio of fifty-scorers in the Lions team's top order. McKinney's performances from opening batsman were more consistent than those of their No 3: he notched 66 in their first batting effort and went two better in their second innings, facing 61 balls over his 50 runs, with five fours and two maximums, each off Bashir's bowling. Bethell made 68 before a poor shot to Ben Stokes at cover, who held a bending catch at shin level.

Cox showed comparable consistency, and built on his first-innings 53 with a further 57, at just over a run per delivery. He played a few exceptionally beautiful strokes on the way, including a drive down the ground and a pull from successive Carse balls to reach his fifty.

Having missed the opening day of this match with a illness and made only the most minor of contributions to the follow-up, Carse delivered excellently when finally given the opportunity, with Ben McKinney and Jordan Cox included in his three wickets.

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