Ollie Pope Cements Position to England's Number Three Spot with Bold 90 Versus Lions

It is hard to know how relevant of the English team's preparatory match will end up being important when their Ashes series contest starts a short distance away at Perth Stadium on the coming Friday – a brief gap in space or time but worlds away in import and atmosphere – but if it managed solely boosting Pope's assurance, that alone has made the exercise worthwhile.

The English side's No 3 – that point is surely totally established – followed his initial innings hundred by scoring a further 90 in the second innings, and what was impressive was not so much the number of runs but the style in which they were accumulated. At times the 27-year-old looked imperious, hitting a dozen boundaries and a two of maximums, timing the ball sweetly but with aggressive purpose.

It was only a practice match versus a England Lions team that employed fully 11 pitchers during a match played in amid a few dozen of people in a public park, but it was still hugely praiseworthy. For the record, the England team, chasing of 202 after the Lions ended their second innings on 251 for six, triumphed by a margin of five wickets when Jamie Smith hurried the team across the finish line with a stream of boundaries.

Crawley and Duckett, the two other significant first-innings' successes, both fell short in the second innings, while Root scored several more points – 31 on this instance – but was not significantly more dominant, then being puzzled and accordingly dismissed by Will Jacks. Brook experienced an similar end a little later.

Bashir – who concluded the fixture having delivered 12 overs for each side – will have encountered part of the hitting he faced pretty hostile. His first six deliveries against the Lions conceded 56, with McKinney taking advantage to pitching that if not completely wayward was definitely far from dangerous.

By the conclusion the sixth spell of those overs, the English side's other pitchers had allowed roughly the equivalent number of runs – 57 – from 15, though the bowler grew a little less giving in time, conceding 27 from his remaining six. He claimed one wicket, holding a sharp, low grab, diving to his right side, to conclude Jacob Bethell's innings for 70, from 80 balls.

Bethell, making up for managing just a small score in the first innings, was a member of three half-centurions in the Lions' leading batsmen. Ben McKinney's scores from opening batsman were more reliable than the scores of their number three: he notched 66 in their first innings and improved by two in their second innings, taking 61 balls for his fifty, with five and two maximums, both against Bashir's's bowling. Bethell reached 68 before a mis-hit to Ben Stokes at cover, who made a low catch at shin level.

Jordan Cox displayed comparable steadiness, and backed up his first-innings 53 with a further 57, at slightly more than a scoring rate of one. He produced some outstandingly elegant strokes during his innings, including a drive down the ground and a pull shot off back-to-back Carse balls to achieve his half century.

After missing the opening day of this match with a illness and made only the most minor of contributions to the second, Carse pitched excellently when at last provided the chance, with Ben McKinney and Cox included in his three dismissals.

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