Ollie Pope Reinforces Claim to England's Number Three Spot with Strong 90 Versus Lions

It is tough to know how much of England's preparatory fixture will end up being important when their Ashes series campaign begins 10km away at the Perth venue on the coming Friday – no distance in space or time but light years away in significance and environment – but if it achieved solely enhancing Ollie Pope's self-belief, that by itself has made the effort worthwhile.

The English side's No 3 – that much is undoubtedly absolutely established – followed his first-innings ton by notching another 90 in the follow-up innings, and what was remarkable was less about the number of scored runs but the style in which they were scored. At times the player looked commanding, striking a dozen fours and a pair of sixes, connecting with the ball perfectly but with fierce determination.

This was merely a friendly against a England Lions squad that deployed fully 11 bowlers across a match staged in before a small group of people in a local ground, but it was nevertheless very praiseworthy. For the record, the England team, set a target of 202 once the Lions closed their second innings on 251 for six, triumphed by five wickets in hand after Smith raced the team over the winning target with a flurry of boundaries.

Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, the two other major first-innings successes, both were dismissed in the follow-up, while Root made several more points – 31 on this time – but was not significantly more assured, prior to being confused and duly dismissed by Jacks. Harry Brook met an similar outcome soon afterwards.

Bashir – who finished the match having delivered 12 overs for either team – will have found a portion of the batting he bowled to quite challenging. His initial six deliveries against the Lions went for 56, with Ben McKinney taking advantage to deliveries that if not exactly poor was definitely far from dangerous.

By the conclusion the sixth of those overs, the English side's remaining three pitchers had given away roughly the identical total of points – 57 – from 15, though the bowler turned a slightly less leaky as time passed, conceding 27 from his last six. He claimed one wicket, making a clever, low grab, leaning to his right side, to end Bethell's knock for 70, from 80 balls.

Jacob Bethell, making up for achieving just a small score in the first innings, was a member of three players fifty-scorers in the Lions' top four. McKinney's scores from opener were more consistent than the scores of their No 3: he scored 66 in their first innings and improved by two in their second, taking 61 balls over his fifty, with five boundaries and two sixes, both off Bashir's's bowling. Jacob Bethell got to 68 then a mishit to Stokes at cover position, who took a stooping catch at shin level.

Jordan Cox displayed like steadiness, and followed his initial innings' 53 with a further 57, at slightly more than a scoring rate of one. He played some exceptionally handsome hits during his innings, including a drive down the ground and a pull shot from successive Brydon Carse balls to attain his 50 runs.

Following his absence from the initial day of this game with a stomach upset and contributed only the smallest of contributions to the second day, Carse pitched excellently when eventually given the chance, with Ben McKinney and Jordan Cox part of his three dismissals.

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