Pope Cements Position to England Cricket's No 3 Spot with Impressive 90 Versus Lions

It is tough to determine how relevant of England's warm-up game will be remotely important when their Ashes contest begins a short distance away at Perth Stadium on Friday – no distance in geography or duration but worlds away in importance and environment – but if it managed nothing more than boosting Ollie Pope's self-belief, that on its own has rendered the endeavor beneficial.

The English side's No 3 – that point is certainly absolutely clear – built on his first-innings ton by adding a further 90 in the follow-up innings, and the most notable was not so much the quantity of scored runs but the manner in which they were scored. On occasion the player looked commanding, smashing a twelve fours and a couple of sixes, connecting with the ball beautifully but with aggressive intent.

It was just a friendly versus a Lions side that used fully 11 pitchers throughout a match staged in front of a handful of spectators in a public park, but it was nonetheless very impressive. To note, the England team, needing of 202 after the Lions ended their second innings on 251 for six, won by five wickets in hand after Jamie Smith raced the team past the winning target with a series of fours and sixes.

Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, the two other major first-innings successes, both fell short in the second innings, while Joe Root made additional points – 31 on this occasion – but was far from more assured, before being puzzled and subsequently dismissed by Will Jacks. Brook suffered an identical outcome soon afterwards.

Shoaib Bashir – who finished the game having delivered 12 bowling spells for either team – will have found some of the strokes he faced quite challenging. His opening six deliveries against the Lions cost 56, with Ben McKinney feasting to deliveries that if not entirely poor was certainly far from threatening.

After the sixth over of those overs, England's three other pitchers had given away nearly exactly the equivalent number of runs – 57 – from 15, though Bashir became a somewhat less leaky in time, allowing 27 from his last six. He took a single wicket, holding a smart, low-down catch, leaning to his right side, to end Jacob Bethell's batting stint for 70, facing 80 deliveries.

Bethell, redeeming managing just three runs in the first innings, was a member of three players half-centurions in the Lions' leading batsmen. Ben McKinney's scores from opener were more reliable than those from their No 3: he notched 66 in their first batting effort and went two better in their second, taking 61 balls for his half-century, with five and a couple maximums, both from Bashir's pitching. Jacob Bethell reached 68 prior to a mishit to Stokes at cover, who took a low catch at shin level.

Jordan Cox showed comparable reliability, and followed his initial innings' 53 with another 57, at slightly more than a run a ball. There were some outstandingly elegant strokes during his innings, such as a straight drive and a pull shot off consecutive Brydon Carse deliveries to reach his half century.

After missing the initial day of this game with a stomach issue and provided merely the most minor of efforts to the second, Brydon Carse bowled superbly when at last given the shot, with McKinney and Jordan Cox part of his three scalps.

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