Pope Strengthens Position to England Cricket's Number Three Role with Impressive 90 Against Lions

It's tough to determine how much of the English team's warm-up match will prove relevant when their Ashes series battle starts a short distance away at the Perth venue on Friday – a short span in space or time but ages away in significance and mood – but if it achieved nothing more than enhancing Ollie Pope's assurance, that by itself has made the effort worthwhile.

England's number three batsman – that point is undoubtedly absolutely clear – built on his first-innings ton by adding another 90 in the second innings, and what was notable was not merely the quantity of scored runs but the style in which they were accumulated. At times the player appeared imperious, striking a dozen boundaries and a pair of maximums, timing the ball sweetly but with fierce purpose.

This was just a friendly versus a Lions team that deployed fully 11 bowlers across a match held in before a few dozen of people in a public park, but it was nonetheless extremely impressive. For the record, England, set a target of 202 once the Lions ended their second innings on 251 for six, won by a margin of five wickets after Jamie Smith raced the team across the finish line with a stream of boundaries.

Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, the remaining big first-innings' achievers, both were dismissed in the second knock, while Root scored further points – 31 on this time – but was far from more convincing, before being bemused and accordingly bowled by Will Jacks. Brook suffered an similar fate shortly after.

Shoaib Bashir – who concluded the game having delivered 12 overs for either team – will have encountered some of the hitting he bowled to quite aggressive. His initial six deliveries versus the Lions cost 56, with Ben McKinney taking advantage to bowling that if not completely loose was certainly not very threatening.

At the end the sixth over of those overs, England's other pitchers had conceded roughly the same number of points – 57 – from 15, though the bowler turned a somewhat less giving in time, giving up 27 from his final six. He secured a single wicket, making a clever, low catch, falling to his right, to end Bethell's knock for 70, facing 80 deliveries.

Bethell, making up for scoring merely a small score in the initial innings, was one of three players players with fifties in the Lions' leading batsmen. Ben McKinney's scores from opener were steadier than the scores of their No 3: he notched 66 in their first innings and went two better in their second, using 61 balls to reach his 50 runs, with five boundaries and two maximums, the pair from Bashir's pitching. Jacob Bethell reached 68 before a mis-hit to Ben Stokes at cover, who made a bending grab at shin level.

Cox exhibited like reliability, and built on his initial innings' 53 with another 57, at slightly more than a run a ball. He produced some exceptionally handsome strokes on the way, including a drive down the ground and a pull against successive Carse balls to achieve his half century.

Following his absence from the first day of this fixture with a stomach issue and contributed merely the smallest of inputs to the second day, Brydon Carse bowled superbly when at last given the shot, with Ben McKinney and Cox part of his three wickets.

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