Pope Cements Claim to England's No 3 Spot with Bold 90 Against Lions

It is tough to know how much of the English team's preparatory game will end up being meaningful when their Ashes contest kicks off 10km away at the Perth venue on the coming Friday – no distance in geography or duration but light years away in import and mood – but if it achieved only enhancing Ollie Pope's confidence, that by itself has made the endeavor beneficial.

England's No 3 – that much is undoubtedly completely established – built on his first-innings hundred by adding another 90 in the follow-up innings, and what was impressive was less about the quantity of runs but the style in which they were made. On occasion the 27-year-old appeared imperious, striking a twelve fours and a pair of maximums, timing the ball beautifully but with devilish determination.

It was just a practice match against a Lions squad that used a total of 11 bowlers during a game played in front of a small group of spectators in a public park, but it was nevertheless very impressive. To note, England, needing of 202 after the Lions ended their follow-on innings on 251 for six, won by a margin of five wickets when Smith sped the team past the finish line with a stream of fours and sixes.

Crawley and Ben Duckett, the remaining major first-innings' successes, both were dismissed in the follow-up, while Joe Root added further runs – 31 on this time – but was not significantly more dominant, prior to being bemused and subsequently dismissed by Will Jacks. Brook met an same fate a little later.

Shoaib Bashir – who concluded the match having delivered 12 bowling spells for either team – will have found some of the strokes he faced rather challenging. His opening six overs against the Lions went for 56, with Ben McKinney taking advantage to pitching that if not completely wayward was certainly not very threatening.

At the end the sixth of that period, the English side's other pitchers had allowed almost precisely the same amount of runs – 57 – from 15, though Bashir became a slightly less leaky in time, allowing 27 from his remaining six. He claimed one dismissal, holding a clever, diving catch, diving to his right side, to conclude Bethell's knock for 70, off 80 deliveries.

Bethell, redeeming managing merely three in the first innings, was among a trio of players with fifties in the Lions team's leading batsmen. Ben McKinney's scores from opening batsman were steadier than those of their No 3: he notched 66 in their initial knock and improved by two in their second innings, facing 61 balls to reach his 50 runs, with five boundaries and two sixes, both from Bashir's pitching. Bethell reached 68 then a mishit to Ben Stokes at cover, who held a stooping grab at shin level.

Cox exhibited similar reliability, and backed up his first-innings 53 with a further 57, at slightly more than a run a ball. He played a few outstandingly beautiful shots during his innings, featuring a straight drive and a hook against back-to-back Brydon Carse deliveries to attain his half century.

Having missed the opening day of this fixture with a illness and provided just the least significant of contributions to the second, Brydon Carse pitched excellently when finally given the shot, with McKinney and Cox among his three wickets.

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