Pope Strengthens Claim to England's Number Three Spot with Bold 90 Versus Lions

It's difficult to gauge how relevant of England's warm-up match will be remotely important when their Ashes campaign kicks off a short distance away at the Perth venue on the coming Friday – no distance in space or time but worlds away in import and environment – but if it achieved nothing more than enhancing Ollie Pope's self-belief, that by itself has rendered the exercise beneficial.

England's No 3 – that point is certainly absolutely certain – built on his initial innings ton by notching a further 90 in the follow-up innings, and the truly impressive was not merely the quantity of scored runs but the way in which they were scored. On occasion the player appeared commanding, hitting a dozen boundaries and a two of sixes, timing the ball perfectly but with aggressive purpose.

This was merely a exhibition game against a England Lions side that used fully 11 pitchers throughout a contest played in front of a handful of onlookers in a local ground, but it was nevertheless very noteworthy. For the record, the England team, needing of 202 following the Lions declared their second innings on 251 for six, won by a margin of five wickets once Smith sped the team past the conclusion with a series of fours and sixes.

Crawley and Ben Duckett, the other two major first-innings' achievers, both fell short in the second innings, while Root added several more points – 31 on this time – but was not significantly more convincing, prior to being puzzled and subsequently bowled by Jacks. Brook suffered an similar end a little later.

Bashir – who ended the match having delivered 12 overs for each side – will have encountered some of the hitting he bowled to quite hostile. His initial six deliveries versus the Lions cost 56, with McKinney tucking in to deliveries that if not exactly poor was surely not overly threatening.

By the conclusion the sixth over of that period, the English side's remaining three bowlers had given away almost precisely the same number of points – 57 – from 15, though the bowler became a little less leaky as time passed, allowing 27 from his remaining six. He secured a single wicket, holding a sharp, low-down grab, falling to his right side, to conclude Jacob Bethell's batting stint for 70, off 80 deliveries.

Jacob Bethell, redeeming scoring merely a small score in the initial innings, was a member of three fifty-scorers in the Lions' top order. McKinney's performances from opener were more consistent than those of their number three: he made 66 in their initial knock and improved by two in their follow-up, using 61 deliveries over his fifty, with five fours and two maximums, each from Bashir's pitching. Jacob Bethell made 68 before a mis-hit to Stokes at cover position, who took a stooping grab at ankle height.

Cox showed like reliability, and built on his initial innings' 53 with an additional 57, at just over a run a ball. He played several exceptionally elegant strokes during his innings, featuring a straight drive and a pull shot off successive Brydon Carse balls to reach his 50 runs.

Having missed the opening day of this fixture with a illness and provided just the smallest of inputs to the follow-up, Carse pitched excellently when at last given the chance, with Ben McKinney and Jordan Cox part of his three dismissals.

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