Pope Cements Position to England Cricket's Number Three Spot with Impressive 90 Versus Lions

It is hard to determine how much of England's practice fixture will end up being important when their Ashes series campaign kicks off a short distance away at Perth Stadium on Friday – a short span in space or time but light years away in importance and environment – but if it managed nothing more than boosting Ollie Pope's confidence, that alone has rendered the effort worthwhile.

England's No 3 – that point is certainly totally established – built on his first-innings hundred by notching a further 90 in the second innings, and the truly impressive was not so much the total of scored runs but the style in which they were scored. At times the player looked dominant, smashing a dozen fours and a pair of sixes, timing the ball beautifully but with fierce determination.

It was merely a exhibition game against a Lions side that used exactly 11 pitchers across a contest played in front of a small group of spectators in a open field, but it was nonetheless extremely noteworthy. Officially, England, chasing of 202 once the Lions declared their follow-on innings on 251 for six, won by five wickets in hand when Jamie Smith raced the team over the finish line with a flurry of fours and sixes.

Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, the remaining significant first-innings achievers, both fell short in the second knock, while Root scored additional points – 31 on this occasion – but was not enormously more convincing, then being confused and accordingly dismissed by Will Jacks. Harry Brook met an identical end shortly after.

Bashir – who concluded the fixture having delivered 12 overs for either team – will have encountered some of the strokes he bowled to pretty hostile. His first six deliveries against the Lions went for 56, with McKinney taking advantage to pitching that if not completely poor was definitely not overly threatening.

After the sixth spell of those overs, the English side's remaining three pitchers had given away almost precisely the equivalent number of points – 57 – from 15, though the bowler grew a little less leaky as time passed, conceding 27 from his final six. He claimed a single wicket, making a clever, low-down catch, falling to his right, to conclude Bethell's batting stint for 70, off 80 deliveries.

Jacob Bethell, making up for scoring merely three in the opening knock, was among a trio of half-centurions in the Lions' top order. McKinney's returns from opening batsman were more consistent than the scores of their number three: he scored 66 in their initial knock and went two better in their follow-up, using 61 balls to reach his 50 runs, with five boundaries and two sixes, the pair from Bashir's's deliveries. Jacob Bethell got to 68 before a poor shot to Stokes at cover position, who took a stooping catch at ankle height.

Jordan Cox displayed comparable reliability, and built on his first-innings 53 with an additional 57, at about a run a ball. He produced a few exceptionally beautiful strokes during his innings, including a straight hit and a pull shot off back-to-back Brydon Carse deliveries to attain his half century.

Following his absence from the opening day of this match with a stomach issue and provided merely the most minor of inputs to the second, Carse bowled brilliantly when at last given the chance, with Ben McKinney and Jordan Cox included in his three dismissals.

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