Pope Reinforces Claim to England's No 3 Slot with Strong 90 Versus Lions

It's tough to gauge how much of England's preparatory game will prove relevant when their Ashes battle kicks off not far at the Perth venue on the coming Friday – a brief gap in space or time but worlds away in import and mood – but if it managed only boosting Ollie Pope's assurance, that alone has made the endeavor valuable.

The English side's number three batsman – that much is surely completely established – built on his first-innings century by notching a further 90 in the second innings, and what was remarkable was not so much the total of scored runs but the way in which they were made. At times the young batsman looked dominant, striking a dozen boundaries and a couple of maximums, connecting with the ball sweetly but with aggressive determination.

This was merely a friendly against a England Lions side that employed fully 11 pitchers across a match held in before a small group of spectators in a public park, but it was still hugely impressive. Officially, the England team, needing of 202 following the Lions ended their follow-on innings on 251 for six, triumphed by a margin of five wickets once Jamie Smith hurried the team past the finish line with a series of fours and sixes.

Zak Crawley and Duckett, the remaining major first-innings' performers, both were dismissed in the follow-up, while Joe Root added several more points – 31 on this instance – but was far from more assured, prior to being puzzled and subsequently out by Will Jacks. Harry Brook met an identical outcome shortly after.

Bashir – who finished the fixture having delivered 12 bowling spells for each side – will have encountered part of the strokes he bowled to rather hostile. His opening six overs versus the Lions went for 56, with Ben McKinney feasting to pitching that if not completely poor was definitely far from threatening.

At the end the sixth of those overs, the English side's remaining three pitchers had allowed roughly the identical amount of points – 57 – from 15, though the bowler turned a somewhat less leaky as time passed, giving up 27 from his final six. He took one wicket, making a smart, low catch, leaning to his right, to conclude Bethell's batting stint for 70, off 80 balls.

Bethell, redeeming scoring merely three in the initial innings, was a member of three players fifty-scorers in the Lions' top four. Ben McKinney's returns from opening batsman were more reliable than those of their number three: he made 66 in their first batting effort and scored 68 in their second, facing 61 balls to reach his fifty, with five and two sixes, each from Bashir's's bowling. Bethell reached 68 before a mis-hit to Stokes at cover position, who held a stooping grab at ankle height.

Cox exhibited comparable steadiness, and followed his initial innings' 53 with an additional 57, at slightly more than a scoring rate of one. He produced a few exceptionally handsome strokes during his innings, such as a straight drive and a pull shot against successive Carse deliveries to achieve his 50 runs.

Following his absence from the first day of this match with a illness and contributed only the most minor of inputs to the second, Carse delivered excellently when eventually afforded the shot, with McKinney and Cox among his three dismissals.

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