Ollie Pope Strengthens Claim to England Cricket's Number Three Spot with Bold 90 Versus Lions

It is tough to gauge how much of England's warm-up match will end up being relevant when their Ashes series battle kicks off not far at Perth Stadium on the coming Friday – a short span in space or time but light years away in import and mood – but if it achieved only strengthening Pope's confidence, that alone has rendered the exercise beneficial.

England's number three batsman – this fact is surely completely clear – followed his first-innings ton by notching another 90 in the second, and what was impressive was not so much the quantity of runs but the style in which they were made. At times the young batsman seemed imperious, hitting a dozen boundaries and a couple of maximums, timing the ball sweetly but with fierce determination.

This was just a exhibition game versus a Lions side that used exactly 11 pitchers throughout a game played in amid a small group of onlookers in a local ground, but it was nonetheless very praiseworthy. For the record, England, chasing of 202 after the Lions declared their follow-on innings on 251 for six, won by a margin of five wickets when Smith sped the team past the winning target with a series of fours and sixes.

Crawley and Ben Duckett, the other two big first-innings' achievers, both fell short in the second knock, while Root added further points – 31 on this occasion – but was not significantly more convincing, before being puzzled and subsequently dismissed by Jacks. Brook met an similar end a little later.

Bashir – who finished the game having delivered 12 bowling spells for both teams – will have found a portion of the strokes he bowled to pretty challenging. His first six overs versus the Lions went for 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 three other bowlers had conceded nearly exactly the identical amount of runs – 57 – from 15, though Bashir grew a somewhat less generous as time passed, allowing 27 from his final six. He took one wicket, holding a smart, diving catch, falling to his right side, to conclude Bethell's batting stint for 70, facing 80 balls.

Bethell, redeeming achieving just a small score in the first innings, was among three players players with fifties in the Lions team's top four. McKinney's performances from opener were more reliable than the scores of their number three: he notched 66 in their initial knock and improved by two in their follow-up, facing 61 deliveries to reach his fifty, with five fours and two six-hit shots, the pair off Bashir's deliveries. Jacob Bethell reached 68 then a poor shot to Stokes at cover, who made a stooping catch at low down.

Cox exhibited like steadiness, and followed his first-innings 53 with a further 57, at slightly more than a run a ball. He played some remarkably elegant hits en route, such as a straight drive and a hook off consecutive Brydon Carse deliveries to attain his fifty.

Following his absence from the initial day of this match with a illness and contributed only the most minor of contributions to the second, Carse bowled superbly when finally afforded the shot, with Ben McKinney and Cox included in his three dismissals.

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