Ollie Pope Reinforces Claim to England Cricket's Number Three Role with Bold 90 Against Lions

It's tough to determine how much of the English team's preparatory match will be remotely important when their Ashes campaign begins 10km away at the Perth venue on Friday – no distance in geography or duration but light years away in import and atmosphere – but if it accomplished only boosting Ollie Pope's confidence, that on its own has made the effort beneficial.

The English side's number three batsman – this fact is certainly totally clear – built on his first-innings ton by scoring a further 90 in the second, and the truly notable was less about the total of scored runs but the style in which they were accumulated. On occasion the player appeared dominant, smashing a twelve fours and a two of sixes, timing the ball perfectly but with aggressive purpose.

It was merely a friendly against a England Lions squad that deployed fully 11 pitchers during a contest played in amid a small group of spectators in a local ground, but it was nonetheless extremely noteworthy. Officially, England, set a target of 202 following the Lions ended their follow-on innings on 251 for six, triumphed by five wickets after Jamie Smith hurried the team across the winning target with a stream of fours and sixes.

Crawley and Duckett, the remaining major first-innings' performers, both were dismissed in the second knock, while Root scored further points – 31 on this instance – but was far from more assured, prior to being bemused and subsequently dismissed by Jacks. Harry Brook met an identical fate soon afterwards.

Shoaib Bashir – who ended the fixture having delivered 12 overs for each side – will have faced a portion of the hitting he confronted pretty challenging. His opening six deliveries versus the Lions went for 56, with McKinney taking advantage to deliveries that if not exactly wayward was certainly far from intimidating.

By the conclusion the sixth of those overs, the English side's remaining three bowlers had conceded roughly the same number of points – 57 – from 15, though Bashir grew a somewhat less generous later on, giving up 27 from his last six. He took one dismissal, making a clever, diving snare, diving to his right, to finish Jacob Bethell's batting stint for 70, facing 80 deliveries.

Bethell, making up for scoring only a small score in the opening knock, was among three players players with fifties in the Lions' leading batsmen. Ben McKinney's performances from opener were steadier than those from their No 3: he made 66 in their initial knock and improved by two in their second innings, using 61 deliveries for his 50 runs, with five boundaries and two six-hit shots, both off Bashir's's pitching. Bethell reached 68 prior to a mishit to Ben Stokes at cover, who made a stooping catch at ankle height.

Cox exhibited similar reliability, and built on his initial innings' 53 with another 57, at about a run per delivery. There were several remarkably handsome strokes during his innings, including a straight hit and a pull against consecutive Brydon Carse deliveries to achieve his half century.

Having missed the first day of this fixture with a stomach upset and provided just the smallest of efforts to the second, Brydon Carse delivered brilliantly when eventually provided the shot, with Ben McKinney and Jordan Cox among his three wickets.

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