Ollie Pope Cements Position to England Cricket's No 3 Role with Strong 90 Versus Lions

It's hard to gauge how much of England's practice game will end up being relevant when their Ashes battle kicks off a short distance away at the Perth venue on Friday – a short span in space or time but light years away in import and mood – but if it achieved only boosting Ollie Pope's confidence, that on its own has made the effort worthwhile.

The English side's No 3 – this fact is undoubtedly totally clear – built on his first-innings ton by adding a further 90 in the second, and what was notable was not so much the number of runs but the way in which they were scored. Periodically the young batsman seemed imperious, smashing a dozen fours and a pair of sixes, connecting with the ball beautifully but with devilish intent.

It was just a exhibition game against a Lions squad that used fully 11 bowlers across a match held in amid a handful of onlookers in a open field, but it was nonetheless very impressive. To note, England, needing of 202 after the Lions closed their second innings on 251 for six, triumphed by five wickets in hand when Jamie Smith hurried the team across the winning target with a flurry of boundaries.

Zak Crawley and Duckett, the two other significant first-innings' successes, both fell short in the second knock, while Root scored several more runs – 31 on this occasion – but was not enormously more assured, before being bemused and accordingly out by Jacks. Harry Brook experienced an same outcome soon afterwards.

Bashir – who concluded the game having delivered 12 overs for each side – will have found some of the strokes he confronted pretty aggressive. His first six deliveries versus the Lions cost 56, with Ben McKinney feasting to deliveries that if not completely poor was surely not very threatening.

After the sixth of that period, England's remaining three pitchers had conceded roughly the identical number of points – 57 – from 15, though the bowler turned a slightly less leaky in time, giving up 27 from his final six. He secured one wicket, holding a sharp, low-down catch, diving to his right side, to finish Jacob Bethell's batting stint for 70, off 80 deliveries.

Bethell, compensating for managing only three in the initial innings, was one of a trio of fifty-scorers in the Lions' top order. Ben McKinney's scores from opener were more consistent than those of their No 3: he scored 66 in their first batting effort and scored 68 in their follow-up, using 61 balls over his half-century, with five boundaries and two maximums, the pair off Bashir's bowling. Jacob Bethell made 68 before a poor shot to Ben Stokes at cover, who made a low grab at low down.

Cox exhibited similar reliability, and followed his first-innings 53 with an additional 57, at about a scoring rate of one. He produced several remarkably handsome shots on the way, featuring a drive down the ground and a hook off successive Brydon Carse deliveries to reach his fifty.

Following his absence from the opening day of this game with a illness and contributed only the most minor of inputs to the second day, Carse bowled brilliantly when eventually given the opportunity, with Ben McKinney and Cox part of his three dismissals.

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