Ollie Pope Strengthens Claim to England's No 3 Slot with Bold 90 Against Lions

It is hard to know how much of England's practice fixture will end up being meaningful when their Ashes series battle starts a short distance away at the Perth venue on Friday – no distance in space or time but worlds away in significance and environment – but if it managed solely boosting Pope's self-belief, that on its own has made the exercise valuable.

England's number three batsman – that much is certainly completely established – followed his first-innings hundred by adding an additional 90 in the follow-up innings, and the truly impressive was less about the quantity of runs but the way in which they were made. At times the player seemed dominant, smashing a twelve boundaries and a pair of maximums, hitting the ball sweetly but with fierce purpose.

It was merely a exhibition game versus a Lions squad that deployed a total of 11 pitchers during a match held in amid a handful of spectators in a public park, but it was still extremely noteworthy. For the record, the England team, chasing of 202 following the Lions declared their second innings on 251 for six, won by five wickets after Jamie Smith hurried the team over the conclusion with a series of boundaries.

Zak Crawley and Duckett, the two other significant first-innings' successes, both fell short in the follow-up, while Root scored several more runs – 31 on this occasion – but was not significantly more dominant, before being bemused and subsequently out by Jacks. Harry Brook met an same fate soon afterwards.

Shoaib Bashir – who finished the match having delivered 12 bowling spells for each side – will have encountered a portion of the hitting he confronted rather aggressive. His first six overs against the Lions conceded 56, with Ben McKinney taking advantage to pitching that if not completely wayward was surely not overly dangerous.

At the end the sixth spell of those deliveries, the English side's three other pitchers had given away nearly exactly the equivalent total of points – 57 – from 15, though the bowler became a somewhat less giving as time passed, giving up 27 from his remaining six. He claimed one dismissal, holding a clever, low catch, falling to his right side, to end Jacob Bethell's innings for 70, from 80 deliveries.

Jacob Bethell, redeeming scoring just three in the initial innings, was a member of a trio of fifty-scorers in the Lions' leading batsmen. Ben McKinney's returns from opener were more reliable than the scores of their number three: he scored 66 in their first innings and improved by two in their follow-up, taking 61 deliveries over his fifty, with five and two six-hit shots, the pair from Bashir's deliveries. Jacob Bethell reached 68 before a mis-hit to Ben Stokes at cover position, who held a stooping catch at shin level.

Cox displayed comparable reliability, and backed up his first-innings 53 with another 57, at slightly more than a run a ball. He played a few exceptionally elegant strokes on the way, including a drive down the ground and a hook from back-to-back Brydon Carse balls to reach his half century.

Having missed the opening day of this game with a stomach upset and contributed just the least significant of efforts to the second day, Brydon Carse pitched brilliantly when eventually provided the chance, with McKinney and Cox among his three wickets.

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