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

It's hard to determine how relevant of England's practice match will prove important when their Ashes series contest kicks off not far at the Perth venue on Friday – a brief gap in geography or duration but worlds away in importance and environment – but if it accomplished solely boosting Ollie Pope's self-belief, that by itself has rendered the exercise beneficial.

The English side's number three batsman – that much is surely completely certain – followed his initial innings ton by scoring an additional 90 in the second innings, and the most impressive was not so much the total of scored runs but the way in which they were scored. At times the player appeared imperious, hitting a dozen boundaries and a two of maximums, timing the ball perfectly but with devilish intent.

This was merely a friendly against a Lions squad that used exactly 11 pitchers during a contest staged in front of a small group of spectators in a local ground, but it was nonetheless hugely praiseworthy. For the record, England, needing of 202 after the Lions declared their follow-on innings on 251 for six, triumphed by five wickets after Smith raced the team across the winning target with a stream of boundaries.

Crawley and Duckett, the other two major first-innings' achievers, both failed in the follow-up, while Joe Root made several more runs – 31 on this occasion – but was not significantly more convincing, prior to being confused and subsequently dismissed by Jacks. Harry Brook met an same fate soon afterwards.

Shoaib Bashir – who finished the fixture having delivered 12 overs for either team – will have encountered part of the strokes he faced quite challenging. His initial six deliveries against the Lions went for 56, with McKinney taking advantage to deliveries that if not exactly poor was certainly not overly threatening.

At the end the sixth spell of those overs, the English side's other bowlers had allowed almost precisely the identical amount of points – 57 – from 15, though Bashir grew a slightly less generous later on, giving up 27 from his last six. He secured a single wicket, making a sharp, diving snare, diving to his right side, to end Jacob Bethell's batting stint for 70, off 80 deliveries.

Bethell, making up for achieving only a small score in the first innings, was one of a trio of fifty-scorers in the Lions' leading batsmen. McKinney's scores from opening batsman were steadier than the scores of their number three: he scored 66 in their first innings and improved by two in their follow-up, facing 61 deliveries over his 50 runs, with five boundaries and two six-hit shots, both from Bashir's pitching. Bethell reached 68 then a mis-hit to Stokes at cover position, who held a bending catch at low down.

Jordan Cox showed like reliability, and backed up his first-innings 53 with a further 57, at slightly more than a scoring rate of one. He produced some remarkably beautiful hits on the way, including a straight hit and a pull shot from back-to-back Brydon Carse deliveries to attain his 50 runs.

Following his absence from the initial day of this game with a stomach upset and made just the smallest of inputs to the second, Brydon Carse delivered superbly when at last afforded the shot, with McKinney and Jordan Cox among his three dismissals.

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