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

It's difficult to gauge how much of England's preparatory match will be remotely meaningful when their Ashes series contest begins 10km away at Perth Stadium on Friday – a short span in geography or duration but worlds away in significance and mood – but if it accomplished nothing more than boosting Pope's confidence, that by itself has made the effort beneficial.

England's number three batsman – this fact is certainly absolutely established – built on his first-innings hundred by adding an additional 90 in the second, and the most notable was not so much the total of runs but the manner in which they were made. On occasion the player looked dominant, hitting a dozen boundaries and a couple of sixes, timing the ball sweetly but with aggressive determination.

This was merely a exhibition game versus a England Lions side that employed exactly 11 bowlers across a contest held in amid a few dozen of spectators in a public park, but it was still very impressive. To note, the England team, set a target of 202 following the Lions declared their second innings on 251 for six, succeeded by five wickets when Jamie Smith raced the team over the finish line with a flurry of boundaries.

Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, the other two major first-innings' successes, both fell short in the follow-up, while Joe Root scored additional runs – 31 on this occasion – but was not enormously more assured, prior to being confused and duly out by Will Jacks. Brook experienced an similar fate soon afterwards.

Shoaib Bashir – who concluded the fixture having delivered 12 bowling spells for each side – will have faced some of the strokes he confronted pretty aggressive. His first six deliveries versus the Lions cost 56, with McKinney tucking in to deliveries that if not completely loose was definitely far from dangerous.

After the sixth spell of that period, the English side's three other bowlers had conceded nearly exactly the identical number of runs – 57 – from 15, though Bashir became a little less generous as time passed, giving up 27 from his last six. He took one wicket, taking a smart, low-down catch, falling to his right, to finish Jacob Bethell's batting stint for 70, from 80 deliveries.

Bethell, making up for managing merely a small score in the first innings, was a member of a trio of players with fifties in the Lions team's top four. McKinney's performances from opening batsman were steadier than the scores of their No 3: he notched 66 in their initial knock and scored 68 in their second innings, using 61 deliveries for his half-century, with five and two sixes, both from Bashir's's deliveries. Bethell got to 68 then a mis-hit to Ben Stokes at cover, who made a bending grab at low down.

Jordan Cox exhibited comparable consistency, and built on his first-innings 53 with another 57, at slightly more than a run a ball. He produced some exceptionally handsome hits on the way, such as a straight drive and a pull shot against successive Carse balls to achieve his 50 runs.

Following his absence from the first day of this fixture with a stomach upset and provided only the most minor of inputs to the second, Brydon Carse pitched excellently when finally provided the chance, with Ben McKinney and Jordan Cox part of his three dismissals.

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