Ollie Pope Reinforces Position to England's No 3 Spot with Impressive 90 Versus Lions

It's hard to know how relevant of England's preparatory match will be remotely important when their Ashes series battle begins a short distance away at the Perth venue on Friday – no distance in geography or duration but ages away in import and mood – but if it accomplished only enhancing Ollie Pope's self-belief, that alone has made the exercise worthwhile.

England's No 3 – that point is certainly absolutely certain – built on his first-innings ton by scoring a further 90 in the follow-up innings, and the truly impressive was less about the total of scored runs but the manner in which they were made. On occasion the player looked commanding, hitting a twelve fours and a pair of maximums, connecting with the ball beautifully but with aggressive determination.

It was merely a practice match versus a England Lions squad that deployed exactly 11 pitchers during a match played in before a few dozen of onlookers in a local ground, but it was still very impressive. Officially, England, set a target of 202 following the Lions declared their second innings on 251 for six, won by five wickets once Smith raced the team over the winning target with a flurry of boundaries.

Zak Crawley and Duckett, the two other big first-innings successes, both fell short in the second innings, while Root added additional runs – 31 on this time – but was not enormously more dominant, then being confused and accordingly out by Will Jacks. Brook suffered an same fate shortly after.

Bashir – who concluded the match having bowled 12 bowling spells for each side – will have encountered part of the batting he confronted quite challenging. His initial six deliveries versus the Lions conceded 56, with Ben McKinney taking advantage to bowling that if not completely loose was certainly not overly threatening.

By the conclusion the sixth spell of those overs, the English side's three other bowlers had allowed almost precisely the equivalent amount of runs – 57 – from 15, though the bowler became a somewhat less giving as time passed, giving up 27 from his remaining six. He claimed one wicket, taking a clever, low snare, diving to his right side, to end Bethell's knock for 70, off 80 deliveries.

Jacob Bethell, making up for scoring merely a small score in the initial innings, was among a trio of fifty-scorers in the Lions team's leading batsmen. Ben McKinney's returns from opening batsman were more consistent than those of their No 3: he made 66 in their initial knock and went two better in their second innings, facing 61 deliveries for his half-century, with five fours and a couple six-hit shots, each against Bashir's's deliveries. Bethell made 68 then a mishit to Ben Stokes at cover, who took a low grab at ankle height.

Cox displayed similar reliability, and backed up his initial innings' 53 with a further 57, at about a scoring rate of one. He played some exceptionally elegant shots during his innings, such as a straight drive and a hook against consecutive Carse balls to reach his half century.

Following his absence from the first day of this game with a stomach issue and provided merely the smallest of efforts to the follow-up, Brydon Carse bowled excellently when eventually provided the opportunity, with McKinney and Jordan Cox among his three wickets.

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