Ollie Pope Cements Position to England Cricket's Number Three Role with Bold 90 Against Lions

It's hard to gauge how much of England's warm-up game will end up being relevant when their Ashes series campaign starts 10km away at the Perth venue on the coming Friday – no distance in space or time but ages away in importance and mood – but if it managed solely strengthening Ollie Pope's confidence, that alone has rendered the endeavor valuable.

England's number three batsman – that point is undoubtedly absolutely established – followed his first-innings hundred by adding a further 90 in the second, and what was notable was less about the number of scored runs but the style in which they were accumulated. At times the player appeared commanding, hitting a dozen fours and a two of sixes, hitting the ball perfectly but with fierce purpose.

It was only a practice match against a England Lions side that deployed exactly 11 bowlers throughout a contest played in front of a few dozen of spectators in a open field, but it was still very noteworthy. To note, the England team, needing of 202 once the Lions ended their follow-on innings on 251 for six, succeeded by five wickets in hand after Jamie Smith hurried the team over the finish line with a stream of boundaries.

Zak Crawley and Duckett, the two other big first-innings successes, both were dismissed in the follow-up, while Joe Root added several more points – 31 on this occasion – but was not significantly more dominant, prior to being puzzled and subsequently dismissed by Will Jacks. Brook experienced an same outcome soon afterwards.

Bashir – who ended the fixture having bowled 12 bowling spells for either team – will have encountered some of the hitting he faced rather hostile. His initial six deliveries versus the Lions cost 56, with McKinney feasting to pitching that if not exactly loose was surely not overly threatening.

At the end the sixth of those deliveries, the English side's other bowlers had conceded roughly the same number of runs – 57 – from 15, though the bowler grew a slightly less generous later on, allowing 27 from his last six. He took a single wicket, making a smart, diving snare, leaning to his right, to conclude Bethell's knock for 70, facing 80 balls.

Jacob Bethell, compensating for achieving merely a small score in the first innings, was among three players players with fifties in the Lions team's top order. Ben McKinney's scores from opening batsman were more reliable than the scores of their number three: he notched 66 in their initial knock and scored 68 in their second innings, facing 61 balls for his fifty, with five fours and two sixes, each from Bashir's deliveries. Bethell reached 68 before a mishit to Stokes at cover position, who held a low grab at low down.

Jordan Cox exhibited like reliability, and backed up his first-innings 53 with a further 57, at about a scoring rate of one. He played a few remarkably handsome shots en route, including a straight hit and a hook from back-to-back Carse balls to reach his 50 runs.

Having missed the first day of this fixture with a stomach issue and contributed merely the smallest of contributions to the second, Carse pitched brilliantly when finally afforded the chance, with Ben McKinney and Jordan Cox among his three scalps.

This report may be updated