Ollie Pope Reinforces Position to England's Number Three Role with Bold 90 Versus Lions

It is difficult to gauge how much of England's practice game will be remotely meaningful when their Ashes series contest begins 10km away at the Perth venue on the coming Friday – a brief gap in space or time but worlds away in import and environment – but if it achieved only boosting Ollie Pope's assurance, that by itself has rendered the exercise valuable.

The English side's number three batsman – this fact is undoubtedly absolutely clear – followed his initial innings ton by adding an additional 90 in the second innings, and what was impressive was not so much the quantity of runs but the manner in which they were scored. Periodically the young batsman appeared imperious, striking a dozen fours and a two of maximums, hitting the ball beautifully but with aggressive purpose.

This was only a practice match against a Lions squad that used fully 11 pitchers throughout a game staged in front of a few dozen of people in a open field, but it was nonetheless extremely noteworthy. Officially, the England team, set a target of 202 once the Lions ended their second innings on 251 for six, succeeded by five wickets in hand once Smith sped the team across the winning target with a stream of fours and sixes.

Crawley and Ben Duckett, the two other significant first-innings' performers, both failed in the second innings, while Root made additional runs – 31 on this instance – but was not significantly more dominant, prior to being puzzled and accordingly out by Will Jacks. Harry Brook suffered an similar fate shortly after.

Bashir – who finished the game having bowled 12 bowling spells for either team – will have found some of the hitting he faced quite aggressive. His first six deliveries against the Lions cost 56, with McKinney taking advantage to deliveries that if not exactly loose was surely far from intimidating.

After the sixth of those deliveries, England's three other bowlers had allowed almost precisely the equivalent number of points – 57 – from 15, though the bowler became a slightly less generous later on, allowing 27 from his final six. He claimed a single wicket, holding a sharp, low grab, falling to his right side, to end Jacob Bethell's knock for 70, from 80 balls.

Jacob Bethell, making up for managing just a small score in the initial innings, was one of three players fifty-scorers in the Lions team's leading batsmen. McKinney's scores from opener were more reliable than those of their No 3: he made 66 in their initial knock and went two better in their second, using 61 balls over his half-century, with five and a couple maximums, both from Bashir's's deliveries. Bethell reached 68 prior to a poor shot to Stokes at cover position, who took a stooping grab at low down.

Cox exhibited like steadiness, and followed his first-innings 53 with an additional 57, at slightly more than a scoring rate of one. There were a few remarkably elegant strokes during his innings, including a straight drive and a pull shot against successive Brydon Carse deliveries to achieve his half century.

Following his absence from the first day of this game with a stomach upset and provided merely the most minor of contributions to the follow-up, Carse pitched brilliantly when finally given the chance, with Ben McKinney and Cox included in his three wickets.

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