Pope Reinforces Status to England Cricket's No 3 Slot with Impressive 90 Against Lions

It's difficult to know how significant of the English team's preparatory game will be remotely important when their Ashes battle starts a short distance away at the Perth venue on Friday – a brief gap in space or time but worlds away in significance and mood – but if it accomplished only strengthening Ollie Pope's self-belief, that by itself has made the exercise beneficial.

The English side's No 3 – that point is undoubtedly totally certain – built on his initial innings ton by notching an additional 90 in the second, and the most notable was less about the quantity of scored runs but the manner in which they were made. At times the player looked dominant, striking a dozen fours and a couple of sixes, connecting with the ball sweetly but with aggressive purpose.

It was only a friendly versus a England Lions team that deployed fully 11 pitchers throughout a match held in amid a small group of spectators in a open field, but it was still extremely praiseworthy. For the record, England, needing of 202 following the Lions declared their second innings on 251 for six, triumphed by five wickets in hand once Smith sped the team over the conclusion with a stream of boundaries.

Crawley and Duckett, the other two significant first-innings achievers, both were dismissed in the follow-up, while Root scored further runs – 31 on this time – but was far from more assured, then being bemused and duly dismissed by Will Jacks. Harry Brook suffered an similar fate a little later.

Shoaib Bashir – who finished the game having delivered 12 bowling spells for either team – will have faced part of the batting he bowled to quite hostile. His initial six overs against the Lions cost 56, with McKinney tucking in to pitching that if not exactly loose was definitely far from threatening.

By the conclusion the sixth spell of those deliveries, England's other bowlers had allowed almost precisely the equivalent total of runs – 57 – from 15, though the bowler became a slightly less leaky later on, giving up 27 from his remaining six. He took one dismissal, taking a sharp, low-down grab, diving to his right side, to conclude Jacob Bethell's batting stint for 70, off 80 balls.

Jacob Bethell, compensating for managing only three in the first innings, was one of three players with fifties in the Lions' leading batsmen. Ben McKinney's returns from opening batsman were steadier than those from their No 3: he scored 66 in their first innings and improved by two in their follow-up, facing 61 balls over his 50 runs, with five and two six-hit shots, the pair off Bashir's's pitching. Bethell got to 68 prior to a poor shot to Ben Stokes at cover position, who made a stooping grab at low down.

Cox showed comparable consistency, and followed his first-innings 53 with a further 57, at about a run per delivery. He produced a few exceptionally elegant hits during his innings, featuring a straight drive and a pull shot from consecutive Brydon Carse deliveries to reach his fifty.

Having missed the initial day of this match with a stomach upset and made only the most minor of contributions to the follow-up, Carse bowled brilliantly when finally given the opportunity, with McKinney and Cox part of his three scalps.

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