Pope Cements Position to England's Number Three Role with Strong 90 Against Lions

It is tough to determine how much of England's practice game will prove relevant when their Ashes series campaign starts not far at Perth Stadium on Friday – a short span in space or time but worlds away in significance and mood – but if it achieved only strengthening Ollie Pope's self-belief, that on its own has rendered the endeavor worthwhile.

England's number three batsman – that much is surely completely certain – followed his initial innings ton by notching another 90 in the follow-up innings, and the truly remarkable was not so much the total of runs but the way in which they were made. At times the 27-year-old seemed commanding, smashing a dozen boundaries and a two of sixes, connecting with the ball sweetly but with aggressive intent.

It was just a practice match against a Lions team that employed fully 11 bowlers throughout a game held in amid a small group of onlookers in a public park, but it was still extremely noteworthy. To note, the England team, chasing of 202 following the Lions closed their follow-on innings on 251 for six, won by five wickets after Jamie Smith sped the team past the conclusion with a series of fours and sixes.

Zak Crawley and Duckett, the remaining major first-innings performers, both failed in the follow-up, while Joe Root scored several more points – 31 on this time – but was not enormously more convincing, then being confused and subsequently bowled by Jacks. Brook suffered an identical end soon afterwards.

Bashir – who concluded the fixture having bowled 12 bowling spells for both teams – will have faced some of the strokes he confronted rather challenging. His opening six deliveries against the Lions went for 56, with McKinney tucking in to pitching that if not completely wayward was definitely not overly intimidating.

By the conclusion the sixth spell of those deliveries, England's other bowlers had given away roughly the same amount of runs – 57 – from 15, though the bowler grew a somewhat less generous later on, conceding 27 from his last six. He secured one wicket, taking a smart, diving catch, falling to his right side, to finish Jacob Bethell's batting stint for 70, off 80 deliveries.

Bethell, making up for scoring merely three runs in the initial innings, was one of a trio of players with fifties in the Lions team's top order. Ben McKinney's returns from opener were steadier than the scores of their No 3: he notched 66 in their first batting effort and went two better in their second innings, facing 61 deliveries for his 50 runs, with five boundaries and a couple maximums, both off Bashir's's pitching. Jacob Bethell made 68 before a poor shot to Ben Stokes at cover, who held a stooping grab at low down.

Cox displayed comparable reliability, and followed his initial innings' 53 with another 57, at about a run a ball. He produced some exceptionally elegant shots on the way, including a drive down the ground and a hook from successive Carse deliveries to achieve his fifty.

Having missed the opening day of this fixture with a illness and contributed only the most minor of contributions to the second day, Carse delivered brilliantly when at last afforded the shot, with McKinney and Jordan Cox among his three dismissals.

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