Ollie Pope Strengthens Claim to England Cricket's Number Three Role with Strong 90 Against Lions

It is hard to determine how much of England's practice fixture will be remotely relevant when their Ashes series campaign kicks off not far at the Perth venue on the coming Friday – no distance in space or time but worlds away in importance and mood – but if it accomplished nothing more than strengthening Pope's self-belief, that by itself has made the exercise worthwhile.

England's number three batsman – that much is certainly totally established – built on his first-innings hundred by adding another 90 in the second, and the most remarkable was not merely the quantity of scored runs but the manner in which they were scored. Periodically the young batsman looked dominant, striking a twelve fours and a pair of maximums, hitting the ball sweetly but with aggressive purpose.

It was only a practice match against a England Lions team that deployed exactly 11 pitchers across a game held in front of a few dozen of spectators in a open field, but it was still extremely noteworthy. Officially, the England team, set a target of 202 once the Lions declared their follow-on innings on 251 for six, triumphed by five wickets in hand once Jamie Smith raced the team past the winning target with a stream of fours and sixes.

Zak Crawley and Duckett, the other two big first-innings' performers, both fell short in the second innings, while Joe Root scored several more runs – 31 on this occasion – but was not significantly more assured, before being bemused and accordingly out by Jacks. Harry Brook met an same fate a little later.

Shoaib Bashir – who finished the fixture having delivered 12 bowling spells for each side – will have encountered a portion of the hitting he bowled to pretty hostile. His opening six overs versus the Lions went for 56, with McKinney taking advantage to deliveries that if not entirely loose was certainly not overly threatening.

At the end the sixth spell of that period, England's three other bowlers had conceded almost precisely the identical number of runs – 57 – from 15, though Bashir turned a somewhat less giving later on, allowing 27 from his remaining six. He secured one wicket, taking a smart, low grab, falling to his right side, to conclude Bethell's innings for 70, facing 80 balls.

Jacob Bethell, redeeming achieving merely three in the first innings, was among a trio of players with fifties in the Lions' leading batsmen. McKinney's scores from opening batsman were more reliable than those of their No 3: he made 66 in their initial knock and improved by two in their second, using 61 deliveries to reach his fifty, with five fours and a couple maximums, the pair from Bashir's's pitching. Jacob Bethell made 68 prior to a mis-hit to Stokes at cover position, who made a bending grab at ankle height.

Jordan Cox showed similar steadiness, and backed up his first-innings 53 with an additional 57, at just over a run per delivery. He played a few outstandingly beautiful strokes en route, such as a straight hit and a pull from successive Brydon Carse deliveries to attain his 50 runs.

Following his absence from the first day of this game with a stomach issue and made only the smallest of contributions to the second day, Carse pitched brilliantly when eventually afforded the chance, with Ben McKinney and Cox among his three scalps.

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