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

It's difficult to determine how significant of the English team's warm-up game will prove meaningful when their Ashes series contest starts 10km away at the Perth venue on Friday – a short span in geography or duration but worlds away in import and mood – but if it managed only boosting Ollie Pope's assurance, that alone has made the exercise beneficial.

The English side's No 3 – that much is undoubtedly absolutely clear – built on his initial innings century by notching an additional 90 in the second innings, and the truly notable was not so much the quantity of runs but the way in which they were scored. On occasion the young batsman seemed imperious, hitting a twelve boundaries and a pair of maximums, timing the ball sweetly but with aggressive purpose.

This was merely a friendly versus a Lions team that deployed exactly 11 pitchers throughout a contest played in amid a small group of onlookers in a open field, but it was still extremely impressive. For the record, the England team, set a target of 202 after the Lions closed their second innings on 251 for six, won by five wickets in hand once Smith hurried the team over the finish line with a series of fours and sixes.

Crawley and Duckett, the other two big first-innings' successes, both were dismissed in the second innings, while Joe Root made several more runs – 31 on this time – but was not enormously more dominant, prior to being bemused and subsequently dismissed by Jacks. Brook experienced an identical fate shortly after.

Bashir – who finished the match having bowled 12 bowling spells for both teams – will have faced some of the hitting he confronted rather aggressive. His opening six deliveries against the Lions went for 56, with McKinney taking advantage to pitching that if not exactly loose was certainly not very intimidating.

By the conclusion the sixth over of that period, England's other bowlers had conceded nearly exactly the identical number of runs – 57 – from 15, though the bowler grew a little less generous as time passed, conceding 27 from his remaining six. He took one dismissal, holding a clever, low grab, diving to his right side, to finish Jacob Bethell's batting stint for 70, off 80 deliveries.

Bethell, making up for achieving just a small score in the first innings, was one of a trio of fifty-scorers in the Lions team's leading batsmen. McKinney's performances from opening batsman were more reliable than the scores of their No 3: he notched 66 in their first batting effort and went two better in their second innings, using 61 balls over his 50 runs, with five fours and two six-hit shots, the pair off Bashir's deliveries. Jacob Bethell made 68 prior to a mis-hit to Stokes at cover, who held a stooping catch at low down.

Cox showed similar consistency, and backed up his first-innings 53 with a further 57, at just over a run a ball. He produced several remarkably elegant strokes during his innings, such as a drive down the ground and a pull shot from consecutive Brydon Carse deliveries to reach his fifty.

After missing the first day of this fixture with a stomach upset and provided merely the least significant of efforts to the second, Brydon Carse pitched excellently when at last provided the shot, with Ben McKinney and Cox included in his three dismissals.

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