Ollie Pope Strengthens Status to England Cricket's No 3 Role with Strong 90 Against Lions

It's tough to know how much of the English team's preparatory match will end up being important when their Ashes battle starts 10km away at the Perth venue on Friday – no distance in space or time but worlds away in importance and environment – but if it accomplished solely strengthening Pope's assurance, that on its own has made the effort worthwhile.

The English side's No 3 – this fact is surely completely established – followed his first-innings ton by scoring an additional 90 in the second innings, and what was impressive was not so much the number of runs but the style in which they were scored. On occasion the 27-year-old appeared dominant, hitting a dozen boundaries and a pair of sixes, connecting with the ball beautifully but with fierce intent.

It was merely a practice match against a Lions squad that employed fully 11 pitchers throughout a match held in before a handful of people in a local ground, but it was nevertheless hugely noteworthy. Officially, England, chasing of 202 following the Lions ended their follow-on innings on 251 for six, won by a margin of five wickets when Smith hurried the team across the conclusion with a stream of boundaries.

Zak Crawley and Duckett, the other two major first-innings performers, both fell short in the second knock, while Root added additional runs – 31 on this time – but was not significantly more dominant, then being puzzled and subsequently bowled by Will Jacks. Harry Brook suffered an identical outcome soon afterwards.

Shoaib Bashir – who concluded the fixture having bowled 12 overs for both teams – will have found part of the batting he confronted pretty hostile. His opening six deliveries against the Lions cost 56, with Ben McKinney tucking in to pitching that if not completely poor was certainly far from intimidating.

By the conclusion the sixth of those overs, the English side's other bowlers had allowed roughly the same amount of points – 57 – from 15, though Bashir grew a little less leaky in time, giving up 27 from his remaining six. He secured one dismissal, making a clever, diving snare, falling to his right side, to conclude Bethell's knock for 70, facing 80 deliveries.

Jacob Bethell, redeeming achieving only three in the first innings, was a member of three players half-centurions in the Lions team's top order. Ben McKinney's returns from opener were steadier than those from their number three: he made 66 in their first innings and improved by two in their follow-up, using 61 deliveries over his fifty, with five boundaries and two maximums, the pair off Bashir's's bowling. Jacob Bethell made 68 then a poor shot to Ben Stokes at cover, who took a low catch at shin level.

Jordan Cox showed similar reliability, and backed up his initial innings' 53 with an additional 57, at about a scoring rate of one. He produced a few exceptionally beautiful hits en route, such as a straight hit and a hook against successive Brydon Carse balls to attain his fifty.

After missing the initial day of this match with a stomach issue and provided merely the smallest of contributions to the second, Brydon Carse delivered excellently when at last provided the chance, with Ben McKinney and Jordan Cox among his three wickets.

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