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

It's tough to determine how relevant of England's practice fixture will prove meaningful when their Ashes series contest starts not far at Perth Stadium on the coming Friday – no distance in geography or duration but light years away in significance and environment – but if it accomplished nothing more than enhancing Pope's assurance, that alone has rendered the effort worthwhile.

England's number three batsman – that point is surely totally established – built on his first-innings ton by notching a further 90 in the second innings, and the truly impressive was less about the quantity of scored runs but the manner in which they were made. On occasion the young batsman looked imperious, hitting a dozen boundaries and a two of sixes, connecting with the ball beautifully but with devilish purpose.

It was only a friendly against a England Lions team that used exactly 11 pitchers across a match held in before a small group of people in a local ground, but it was nonetheless very praiseworthy. To note, the England team, needing of 202 after the Lions ended their follow-on innings on 251 for six, won by five wickets in hand when Jamie Smith hurried the team across the conclusion with a flurry of boundaries.

Zak Crawley and Duckett, the two other major first-innings successes, both fell short in the second innings, while Root made further runs – 31 on this occasion – but was not enormously more assured, then being confused and subsequently bowled by Jacks. Brook experienced an identical fate shortly after.

Shoaib Bashir – who concluded the fixture having bowled 12 bowling spells for either team – will have found part of the strokes he faced pretty aggressive. His first six overs against the Lions went for 56, with Ben McKinney taking advantage to bowling that if not completely wayward was surely not overly intimidating.

At the end the sixth spell of those deliveries, England's three other bowlers had allowed roughly the identical amount of points – 57 – from 15, though the bowler became a slightly less leaky as time passed, conceding 27 from his final six. He took one dismissal, holding a smart, low-down snare, falling to his right, to finish Jacob Bethell's knock for 70, facing 80 balls.

Bethell, making up for achieving only a small score in the initial innings, was one of three half-centurions in the Lions' leading batsmen. McKinney's scores from opening batsman were more reliable than the scores of their number three: he made 66 in their initial knock and scored 68 in their second, facing 61 deliveries for his fifty, with five fours and a couple six-hit shots, each against Bashir's bowling. Bethell reached 68 before a mishit to Stokes at cover position, who took a stooping grab at shin level.

Jordan Cox showed like reliability, and built on his initial innings' 53 with a further 57, at slightly more than a scoring rate of one. He produced several outstandingly elegant hits on the way, including a straight hit and a pull shot off back-to-back Brydon Carse balls to attain his fifty.

Having missed the first day of this game with a stomach issue and contributed just the most minor of inputs to the second, Carse pitched excellently when finally provided the shot, with Ben McKinney and Cox included in his three wickets.

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