Ollie Pope Cements Claim to England Cricket's Number Three Slot with Bold 90 Versus Lions

It is difficult to determine how significant of England's warm-up match will be remotely meaningful when their Ashes series battle kicks off a short distance away at Perth Stadium on Friday – no distance in space or time but worlds away in significance and atmosphere – but if it managed solely strengthening Pope's confidence, that by itself has made the effort worthwhile.

England's No 3 – that much is undoubtedly absolutely certain – built on his first-innings ton by scoring an additional 90 in the follow-up innings, and what was impressive was less about the quantity of runs but the style in which they were accumulated. On occasion the player appeared imperious, striking a twelve boundaries and a couple of maximums, connecting with the ball sweetly but with devilish intent.

This was only a exhibition game versus a England Lions side that deployed fully 11 pitchers throughout a contest staged in amid a few dozen of onlookers in a open field, but it was nonetheless extremely noteworthy. Officially, England, needing of 202 following the Lions ended their follow-on innings on 251 for six, triumphed by five wickets in hand when Smith raced the team over the finish line with a stream of boundaries.

Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, the remaining big first-innings performers, both failed in the second knock, while Root made several more points – 31 on this time – but was far from more convincing, then being puzzled and accordingly dismissed by Will Jacks. Brook experienced an similar fate soon afterwards.

Bashir – who ended the fixture having delivered 12 bowling spells for either team – will have faced part of the batting he confronted pretty hostile. His first six overs against the Lions cost 56, with McKinney tucking in to bowling that if not entirely wayward was definitely far from threatening.

After the sixth spell of that period, England's other pitchers had given away almost precisely the same total of points – 57 – from 15, though Bashir turned a little less giving later on, allowing 27 from his final six. He took one dismissal, holding a sharp, low-down catch, leaning to his right, to end Jacob Bethell's batting stint for 70, facing 80 deliveries.

Jacob Bethell, making up for achieving merely a small score in the opening knock, was a member of three players with fifties in the Lions team's top four. McKinney's returns from opener were more reliable than those of their number three: he scored 66 in their first innings and went two better in their second, facing 61 deliveries to reach his fifty, with five fours and two sixes, the pair against Bashir's's bowling. Bethell reached 68 before a poor shot to Ben Stokes at cover position, who held a bending grab at ankle height.

Cox exhibited similar steadiness, and backed up his first-innings 53 with an additional 57, at slightly more than a run a ball. There were several remarkably beautiful hits on the way, including a straight drive and a pull against consecutive Carse balls to attain his half century.

After missing the opening day of this game with a stomach upset and made just the least significant of inputs to the second, Carse delivered superbly when at last afforded the chance, with Ben McKinney and Cox included in his three dismissals.

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