Ollie Pope Strengthens Position to England's No 3 Role with Bold 90 Versus Lions

It is tough to gauge how much of the English team's preparatory match will be remotely important when their Ashes series campaign kicks off not far at the Perth venue on Friday – no distance in geography or duration but ages away in importance and environment – but if it managed nothing more than strengthening Ollie Pope's assurance, that on its own has made the effort worthwhile.

The English side's number three batsman – that much is undoubtedly completely established – followed his first-innings ton by scoring another 90 in the follow-up innings, and what was remarkable was not so much the quantity of scored runs but the way in which they were scored. Periodically the 27-year-old looked imperious, smashing a twelve fours and a two of maximums, timing the ball sweetly but with aggressive intent.

This was just a practice match against a Lions team that employed fully 11 pitchers across a match held in amid a few dozen of onlookers in a open field, but it was nonetheless extremely impressive. To note, the England team, chasing of 202 following the Lions closed their follow-on innings on 251 for six, triumphed by five wickets once Jamie Smith hurried the team past the winning target with a series of boundaries.

Crawley and Ben Duckett, the two other major first-innings achievers, both fell short in the follow-up, while Root added additional points – 31 on this instance – but was far from more assured, before being bemused and accordingly bowled by Jacks. Harry Brook suffered an identical fate shortly after.

Shoaib Bashir – who concluded the fixture having delivered 12 overs for each side – will have faced part of the strokes he faced quite hostile. His opening six overs versus the Lions went for 56, with Ben McKinney taking advantage to bowling that if not entirely loose was definitely not very intimidating.

By the conclusion the sixth spell of those deliveries, England's other bowlers had allowed roughly the identical amount of runs – 57 – from 15, though the bowler turned a slightly less giving in time, allowing 27 from his last six. He claimed a single wicket, making a sharp, low catch, diving to his right side, to finish Jacob Bethell's batting stint for 70, off 80 deliveries.

Bethell, making up for achieving just a small score in the first innings, was a member of three players fifty-scorers in the Lions team's top order. Ben McKinney's performances from opening batsman were more consistent than those from their number three: he made 66 in their first batting effort and went two better in their second innings, taking 61 deliveries for his half-century, with five and two sixes, each off Bashir's's deliveries. Bethell got to 68 before a poor shot to Ben Stokes at cover, who made a low grab at shin level.

Cox displayed similar consistency, and backed up his first-innings 53 with another 57, at about a scoring rate of one. He played a few exceptionally handsome shots on the way, including a straight drive and a pull against successive Carse balls to reach his 50 runs.

Following his absence from the first day of this match with a stomach issue and made just the smallest of inputs to the second, Carse delivered superbly when finally given the opportunity, with Ben McKinney and Cox part of his three scalps.

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