Ollie Pope Strengthens Claim to England Cricket's Number Three Role with Bold 90 Versus Lions

It's difficult to know how much of England's preparatory fixture will prove meaningful when their Ashes campaign begins 10km away at Perth Stadium on the coming Friday – no distance in geography or duration but worlds away in importance and environment – but if it achieved solely boosting Pope's confidence, that by itself has made the exercise beneficial.

The English side's number three batsman – that point is surely absolutely certain – built on his first-innings ton by notching an additional 90 in the second innings, and the most remarkable was not so much the total of scored runs but the way in which they were accumulated. On occasion the 27-year-old appeared dominant, smashing a twelve fours and a couple of maximums, connecting with the ball sweetly but with fierce purpose.

This was only a exhibition game against a Lions squad that used a total of 11 bowlers across a match staged in front of a few dozen of spectators in a public park, but it was nonetheless hugely impressive. Officially, England, chasing of 202 following the Lions ended their second innings on 251 for six, succeeded by five wickets after Smith hurried the team across the conclusion with a series of fours and sixes.

Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, the two other significant first-innings performers, both failed in the second knock, while Joe Root added further runs – 31 on this occasion – but was not enormously more assured, then being confused and accordingly bowled by Will Jacks. Brook suffered an same fate shortly after.

Shoaib Bashir – who concluded the match having bowled 12 bowling spells for each side – will have found a portion of the hitting he bowled to quite hostile. His opening six deliveries versus the Lions cost 56, with Ben McKinney feasting to deliveries that if not entirely poor was certainly far from dangerous.

At the end the sixth over of those deliveries, the English side's other bowlers had given away nearly exactly the identical total of points – 57 – from 15, though Bashir became a slightly less generous in time, giving up 27 from his last six. He claimed one dismissal, holding a clever, low grab, falling to his right, to end Jacob Bethell's batting stint for 70, from 80 balls.

Bethell, compensating for achieving merely three runs in the opening knock, was a member of three fifty-scorers in the Lions' top order. Ben McKinney's scores from opening batsman were more reliable than those from their No 3: he notched 66 in their first innings and improved by two in their second, facing 61 balls for his fifty, with five and two sixes, both from Bashir's's bowling. Jacob Bethell made 68 prior to a mis-hit to Ben Stokes at cover, who held a low catch at shin level.

Cox displayed similar steadiness, and built on his first-innings 53 with an additional 57, at slightly more than a run a ball. He played several exceptionally handsome hits en route, including a drive down the ground and a hook from consecutive Carse balls to attain his fifty.

Following his absence from the first day of this match with a stomach issue and provided just the most minor of inputs to the second day, Brydon Carse pitched excellently when finally given the shot, with Ben McKinney and Jordan Cox among his three scalps.

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