Pope Strengthens Claim to England Cricket's No 3 Slot with Impressive 90 Versus Lions

It is difficult to determine how relevant of England's warm-up fixture will end up being important when their Ashes series battle begins a short distance away at the Perth venue on Friday – no distance in space or time but worlds away in significance and atmosphere – but if it accomplished nothing more than enhancing Ollie Pope's confidence, that on its own has rendered the effort beneficial.

England's No 3 – that point is surely totally certain – followed his initial innings hundred by notching an additional 90 in the follow-up innings, and what was impressive was not merely the total of scored runs but the style in which they were scored. On occasion the player appeared imperious, hitting a dozen boundaries and a two of maximums, hitting the ball beautifully but with aggressive intent.

This was just a exhibition game versus a Lions team that employed fully 11 bowlers throughout a game held in front of a handful of people in a local ground, but it was nevertheless very noteworthy. For the record, the England team, chasing of 202 once the Lions ended their second innings on 251 for six, succeeded by a margin of five wickets when Smith sped the team over the winning target with a stream of boundaries.

Crawley and Duckett, the two other major first-innings achievers, both were dismissed in the second knock, while Root scored further runs – 31 on this instance – but was not enormously more convincing, before being puzzled and subsequently out by Will Jacks. Harry Brook met an identical fate a little later.

Bashir – who concluded the match having delivered 12 overs for each side – will have encountered some of the batting he bowled to pretty aggressive. His initial six deliveries against the Lions conceded 56, with McKinney tucking in to pitching that if not exactly wayward was certainly not overly dangerous.

By the conclusion the sixth spell of that period, England's three other pitchers had allowed nearly exactly the identical number of points – 57 – from 15, though the bowler grew a little less generous as time passed, allowing 27 from his last six. He claimed a single wicket, making a clever, low-down grab, leaning to his right, to end Bethell's knock for 70, facing 80 balls.

Bethell, making up for achieving only three runs in the initial innings, was a member of a trio of half-centurions in the Lions team's top four. McKinney's scores from opening batsman were more consistent than those of their No 3: he notched 66 in their initial knock and scored 68 in their second, taking 61 deliveries for his 50 runs, with five boundaries and a couple six-hit shots, each against Bashir's deliveries. Bethell got to 68 prior to a mishit to Ben Stokes at cover, who held a low catch at low down.

Cox showed like steadiness, and backed up his initial innings' 53 with a further 57, at just over a scoring rate of one. There were several outstandingly handsome hits on the way, such as a straight hit and a pull from successive Carse balls to attain his 50 runs.

After missing the opening day of this fixture with a stomach upset and contributed merely the least significant of efforts to the follow-up, Brydon Carse bowled brilliantly when finally afforded the shot, with Ben McKinney and Jordan Cox included in his three dismissals.

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