Ollie Pope Reinforces Position to England's No 3 Role with Bold 90 Against Lions

It's hard to determine how much of England's practice game will be remotely important when their Ashes campaign kicks off 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 accomplished only strengthening Ollie Pope's assurance, that by itself has made the endeavor valuable.

England's No 3 – this fact is surely totally certain – built on his initial innings century by adding an additional 90 in the second, and the most impressive was less about the total of scored runs but the way in which they were accumulated. On occasion the player looked commanding, smashing a twelve boundaries and a two of maximums, hitting the ball sweetly but with aggressive purpose.

This was only a friendly against a Lions side that used exactly 11 bowlers throughout a game played in front of a few dozen of onlookers in a public park, but it was nonetheless hugely impressive. Officially, the England team, needing of 202 once the Lions ended their second innings on 251 for six, won by a margin of five wickets once Smith sped the team across the winning target with a flurry of boundaries.

Crawley and Ben Duckett, the remaining big first-innings successes, both failed in the follow-up, while Joe Root scored several more points – 31 on this instance – but was far from more convincing, prior to being confused and subsequently out by Jacks. Brook suffered an same end shortly after.

Bashir – who ended the match having delivered 12 overs for both teams – will have found some of the hitting he confronted rather challenging. His first six overs against the Lions cost 56, with McKinney tucking in to deliveries that if not completely wayward was definitely far from threatening.

By the conclusion the sixth spell of that period, the English side's other pitchers had conceded nearly exactly the same amount of runs – 57 – from 15, though the bowler became a slightly less generous later on, conceding 27 from his final six. He claimed one dismissal, making a sharp, low catch, leaning to his right, to finish Jacob Bethell's knock for 70, facing 80 balls.

Jacob Bethell, redeeming scoring merely a small score in the initial innings, was a member of three players half-centurions in the Lions' leading batsmen. Ben McKinney's returns from opening batsman were steadier than those from their No 3: he made 66 in their first batting effort and went two better in their follow-up, taking 61 balls for his 50 runs, with five boundaries and two six-hit shots, both from Bashir's pitching. Bethell got to 68 then a mis-hit to Stokes at cover, who made a low grab at low down.

Cox showed similar reliability, and followed his first-innings 53 with a further 57, at slightly more than a run per delivery. There were a few exceptionally handsome strokes en route, including a straight hit and a pull shot from back-to-back Carse deliveries to achieve his 50 runs.

Following his absence from the opening day of this fixture with a stomach upset and made merely the least significant of inputs to the second, Brydon Carse delivered brilliantly when eventually provided the shot, with Ben McKinney and Jordan Cox part of his three scalps.

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