Ollie Pope Cements Position to England Cricket's No 3 Spot with Impressive 90 Against Lions

It is hard to determine how significant of England's preparatory game will end up being relevant when their Ashes battle kicks off 10km away at Perth Stadium on Friday – no distance in space or time but light years away in import and environment – but if it achieved solely strengthening Ollie Pope's assurance, that on its own has rendered the exercise valuable.

England's number three batsman – that much is certainly completely established – built on his first-innings hundred by adding a further 90 in the second innings, and the most remarkable was not merely the total of runs but the way in which they were scored. Periodically the player seemed imperious, hitting a twelve boundaries and a couple of sixes, timing the ball perfectly but with fierce purpose.

It was only a exhibition game versus a Lions side that employed a total of 11 bowlers throughout a contest staged in before a few dozen of spectators in a local ground, but it was nonetheless extremely impressive. Officially, England, chasing of 202 once the Lions closed their follow-on innings on 251 for six, won by five wickets after Jamie Smith sped the team across the finish line with a flurry of fours and sixes.

Crawley and Duckett, the two other significant first-innings successes, both were dismissed in the second innings, while Joe Root scored several more points – 31 on this instance – but was not significantly more dominant, then being puzzled and accordingly out by Jacks. Brook met an identical end a little later.

Bashir – who concluded the fixture having delivered 12 overs for either team – will have encountered a portion of the hitting he bowled to quite hostile. His opening six overs against the Lions conceded 56, with Ben McKinney taking advantage to deliveries that if not completely wayward was definitely far from intimidating.

By the conclusion the sixth of those deliveries, the English side's other pitchers had allowed nearly exactly the identical number of runs – 57 – from 15, though Bashir became a slightly less leaky later on, conceding 27 from his final six. He secured one dismissal, making a sharp, diving grab, falling to his right side, to conclude Jacob Bethell's knock for 70, off 80 deliveries.

Bethell, making up for scoring only three in the initial innings, was a member of a trio of players with fifties in the Lions team's top four. McKinney's returns from opening batsman were steadier than those of their No 3: he notched 66 in their initial knock and improved by two in their second, facing 61 balls to reach his half-century, with five and two sixes, both off Bashir's pitching. Bethell made 68 before a mis-hit to Stokes at cover, who made a stooping catch at low down.

Jordan Cox showed similar reliability, and backed up his initial innings' 53 with another 57, at about a scoring rate of one. There were some outstandingly handsome strokes en route, featuring a straight drive and a hook against successive Brydon Carse balls to achieve his half century.

Following his absence from the first day of this game with a illness and made just the smallest of contributions to the second, Carse pitched excellently when at last provided the chance, with McKinney and Cox included in his three scalps.

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