Ollie Pope Reinforces Position to England's Number Three Role with Strong 90 Against Lions

It is difficult to know how significant of England's practice fixture will be remotely important when their Ashes campaign begins 10km away at the Perth venue on the coming Friday – no distance in space or time but worlds away in significance and environment – but if it achieved nothing more than strengthening Pope's self-belief, that alone has rendered the effort beneficial.

The English side's number three batsman – that much is undoubtedly totally clear – built on his initial innings hundred by adding an additional 90 in the second innings, and the most impressive was not so much the quantity of scored runs but the style in which they were made. Periodically the player appeared commanding, hitting a twelve fours and a pair of maximums, timing the ball perfectly but with devilish purpose.

This was just a friendly versus a Lions squad that deployed a total of 11 pitchers across a match staged in before a handful of spectators in a public park, but it was nonetheless very noteworthy. To note, the England team, chasing of 202 after the Lions closed their second innings on 251 for six, won by a margin of five wickets after Smith hurried the team over the conclusion with a series of fours and sixes.

Crawley and Ben Duckett, the remaining significant first-innings' performers, both were dismissed in the follow-up, while Joe Root added additional runs – 31 on this instance – but was not significantly more dominant, prior to being bemused and subsequently out by Will Jacks. Brook suffered an same end a little later.

Shoaib Bashir – who ended the game having delivered 12 bowling spells for either team – will have faced part of the strokes he bowled to rather aggressive. His opening six deliveries against the Lions cost 56, with Ben McKinney taking advantage to pitching that if not completely loose was surely not overly intimidating.

After the sixth over of those deliveries, England's three other pitchers had allowed roughly the identical number of points – 57 – from 15, though Bashir became a somewhat less leaky as time passed, conceding 27 from his remaining six. He took one dismissal, taking a clever, diving catch, leaning to his right, to end Bethell's batting stint for 70, off 80 balls.

Jacob Bethell, making up for managing merely three runs in the initial innings, was among three players fifty-scorers in the Lions team's leading batsmen. Ben McKinney's returns from opening batsman were more reliable than the scores of their number three: he made 66 in their first innings and improved by two in their second innings, taking 61 deliveries for his 50 runs, with five fours and two sixes, both off Bashir's's deliveries. Jacob Bethell reached 68 before a mis-hit to Ben Stokes at cover position, who made a stooping catch at low down.

Cox displayed similar reliability, and built on his initial innings' 53 with an additional 57, at slightly more than a scoring rate of one. He played several exceptionally elegant strokes during his innings, featuring a drive down the ground and a hook from successive Carse deliveries to achieve his 50 runs.

After missing the first day of this game with a stomach issue and made merely the smallest of efforts to the second, Carse bowled brilliantly when eventually provided the shot, with Ben McKinney and Cox included in his three wickets.

This report may be updated