Ollie Pope Cements Position to England Cricket's Number Three Spot with Strong 90 Against Lions

It's difficult to determine how relevant of the English team's warm-up fixture will be remotely important when their Ashes contest begins not far at the Perth venue on the coming Friday – a short span in space or time but light years away in significance and atmosphere – but if it accomplished nothing more than enhancing Ollie Pope's confidence, that alone has made the effort valuable.

The English side's No 3 – that much is surely absolutely established – built on his initial innings ton by scoring an additional 90 in the second innings, and what was notable was not merely the number of runs but the manner in which they were made. Periodically the 27-year-old appeared dominant, hitting a dozen boundaries and a pair of maximums, hitting the ball beautifully but with aggressive determination.

This was merely a friendly versus a England Lions side that deployed fully 11 pitchers during a game held in before a small group of onlookers in a public park, but it was still extremely impressive. Officially, England, chasing of 202 once the Lions declared their follow-on innings on 251 for six, won by a margin of five wickets once Jamie Smith hurried the team past the finish line with a stream of fours and sixes.

Crawley and Ben Duckett, the other two significant first-innings performers, both fell short in the second innings, while Root made several more runs – 31 on this time – but was not significantly more dominant, prior to being puzzled and subsequently bowled by Jacks. Brook experienced an identical end soon afterwards.

Shoaib Bashir – who ended the match having delivered 12 bowling spells for each side – will have faced a portion of the strokes he bowled to rather challenging. His opening six deliveries versus the Lions went for 56, with Ben McKinney taking advantage to pitching that if not completely poor was definitely not very dangerous.

At the end the sixth over of those overs, the English side's remaining three bowlers had conceded nearly exactly the same amount of points – 57 – from 15, though the bowler turned a little less leaky in time, conceding 27 from his remaining six. He secured one wicket, making a smart, low-down catch, falling to his right, to finish Jacob Bethell's knock for 70, from 80 balls.

Jacob Bethell, compensating for managing just three runs in the opening knock, was a member of three players fifty-scorers in the Lions team's top four. McKinney's returns from opening batsman were more consistent than those of their number three: he made 66 in their initial knock and improved by two in their second innings, using 61 balls to reach his half-century, with five and two sixes, each off Bashir's's bowling. Bethell reached 68 before a mis-hit to Stokes at cover position, who made a low grab at shin level.

Cox displayed like consistency, and followed his first-innings 53 with an additional 57, at about a run a ball. He produced several exceptionally elegant shots on the way, including a drive down the ground and a pull off consecutive Carse deliveries to attain his 50 runs.

Following his absence from the initial day of this match with a illness and contributed merely the smallest of efforts to the second day, Brydon Carse bowled brilliantly when finally afforded the shot, with McKinney and Jordan Cox included in his three wickets.

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