Ollie Pope Strengthens Status to England's Number Three Role with Impressive 90 Versus Lions

It is hard to gauge how significant of England's practice fixture will be remotely important when their Ashes battle kicks off a short distance away at the Perth venue on the coming Friday – a brief gap in geography or duration but light years away in importance and mood – but if it accomplished nothing more than enhancing Pope's confidence, that on its own has rendered the exercise worthwhile.

The English side's No 3 – that point is surely absolutely established – followed his first-innings century by adding a further 90 in the follow-up innings, and what was notable was not merely the quantity of runs but the manner in which they were accumulated. On occasion the young batsman looked commanding, smashing a twelve boundaries and a pair of sixes, hitting the ball beautifully but with fierce purpose.

This was just a exhibition game against a England Lions side that used fully 11 bowlers across a match played in amid a handful of onlookers in a local ground, but it was nevertheless very praiseworthy. Officially, the England team, chasing of 202 after the Lions declared their follow-on innings on 251 for six, succeeded by five wickets once Jamie Smith raced the team past the finish line with a flurry of boundaries.

Zak Crawley and Duckett, the other two significant first-innings successes, both fell short in the second innings, while Joe Root scored additional runs – 31 on this occasion – but was not significantly more dominant, prior to being bemused and accordingly dismissed by Jacks. Brook met an same outcome a little later.

Bashir – who finished the game having bowled 12 bowling spells for both teams – will have encountered part of the strokes he bowled to pretty hostile. His opening six overs against the Lions went for 56, with Ben McKinney tucking in to pitching that if not exactly poor was surely not very intimidating.

By the conclusion the sixth spell of that period, the English side's three other bowlers had conceded nearly exactly the equivalent amount of runs – 57 – from 15, though the bowler became a slightly less leaky in time, allowing 27 from his remaining six. He secured a single wicket, holding a clever, low grab, falling to his right, to conclude Jacob Bethell's innings for 70, off 80 balls.

Jacob Bethell, compensating for scoring merely a small score in the opening knock, was a member of a trio of fifty-scorers in the Lions' leading batsmen. Ben McKinney's performances from opening batsman were more reliable than those from their number three: he made 66 in their initial knock and improved by two in their second innings, taking 61 deliveries for his 50 runs, with five boundaries and a couple maximums, each from Bashir's pitching. Bethell got to 68 prior to a mis-hit to Stokes at cover position, who made a bending grab at ankle height.

Jordan Cox exhibited similar steadiness, and followed his initial innings' 53 with a further 57, at about a scoring rate of one. He played several outstandingly elegant strokes during his innings, featuring a straight drive and a pull off back-to-back Carse deliveries to reach his 50 runs.

Having missed the first day of this game with a stomach upset and made just the smallest of inputs to the second day, Carse bowled excellently when finally provided the opportunity, with Ben McKinney and Jordan Cox included in his three scalps.

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