Ollie Pope Strengthens Position to England's No 3 Slot with Strong 90 Versus Lions

It is hard to determine how relevant of the English team's warm-up match will prove meaningful when their Ashes series battle begins a short distance away at the Perth venue on the coming Friday – a brief gap in space or time but worlds away in importance and mood – but if it achieved solely boosting Ollie Pope's confidence, that by itself has rendered the effort beneficial.

The English side's No 3 – that point is undoubtedly completely certain – built on his initial innings ton by scoring a further 90 in the second, and what was impressive was not so much the number of scored runs but the manner in which they were accumulated. On occasion the 27-year-old looked imperious, striking a dozen fours and a couple of maximums, hitting the ball beautifully but with devilish intent.

It was only a practice match against a England Lions side that used a total of 11 bowlers during a contest held in amid a few dozen of spectators in a local ground, but it was nevertheless hugely impressive. To note, the England team, set a target of 202 after the Lions closed their second innings on 251 for six, won by a margin of five wickets once Jamie Smith sped the team over the finish line with a series of boundaries.

Zak Crawley and Duckett, the two other big first-innings successes, both were dismissed in the follow-up, while Joe Root scored several more points – 31 on this occasion – but was not enormously more dominant, before being bemused and subsequently dismissed by Will Jacks. Brook experienced an similar end soon afterwards.

Shoaib Bashir – who finished the match having bowled 12 overs for either team – will have found some of the batting he confronted rather challenging. His initial six deliveries against the Lions cost 56, with McKinney taking advantage to bowling that if not completely wayward was certainly far from threatening.

By the conclusion the sixth spell of those deliveries, the English side's other bowlers had conceded roughly the equivalent amount of points – 57 – from 15, though Bashir became a slightly less leaky as time passed, conceding 27 from his final six. He secured one dismissal, making a sharp, low snare, falling to his right side, to finish Bethell's batting stint for 70, off 80 deliveries.

Jacob Bethell, compensating for managing just three runs in the initial innings, was one of three players fifty-scorers in the Lions team's top four. Ben McKinney's scores from opening batsman were steadier than the scores of their number three: he scored 66 in their initial knock and improved by two in their follow-up, taking 61 deliveries over his half-century, with five boundaries and a couple maximums, both off Bashir's pitching. Jacob Bethell reached 68 before a poor shot to Stokes at cover position, who held a stooping grab at ankle height.

Cox displayed like steadiness, and followed his first-innings 53 with an additional 57, at just over a run a ball. He produced a few exceptionally elegant hits during his innings, featuring a drive down the ground and a pull from back-to-back Brydon Carse balls to achieve his fifty.

Having missed the first day of this match with a stomach issue and provided merely the least significant of inputs to the second, Carse pitched brilliantly when at last provided the chance, with Ben McKinney and Cox among his three scalps.

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