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

It's difficult to determine how relevant of the English team's preparatory fixture will end up being important when their Ashes series campaign kicks off 10km away at the Perth venue on Friday – no distance in space or time but worlds away in significance and mood – but if it achieved solely enhancing Ollie Pope's assurance, that by itself has made the endeavor beneficial.

England's number three batsman – that point is certainly absolutely certain – built on his initial innings century by notching a further 90 in the second innings, and the most remarkable was less about the total of runs but the way in which they were made. On occasion the young batsman seemed commanding, striking a twelve fours and a pair of maximums, timing the ball sweetly but with fierce intent.

This was only a practice match against a Lions side that used fully 11 bowlers throughout a game played in before a few dozen of people in a open field, but it was still hugely noteworthy. Officially, England, chasing of 202 following the Lions closed their second innings on 251 for six, won by five wickets once Smith hurried the team past the winning target with a series of fours and sixes.

Zak Crawley and Duckett, the other two significant first-innings achievers, both fell short in the second knock, while Root made several more points – 31 on this occasion – but was not enormously more convincing, then being bemused and duly dismissed by Will Jacks. Brook met an same fate soon afterwards.

Bashir – who ended the match having delivered 12 bowling spells for each side – will have found part of the batting he faced quite hostile. His initial six overs against the Lions cost 56, with Ben McKinney taking advantage to deliveries that if not exactly loose was definitely not very dangerous.

At the end the sixth over of those overs, the English side's three other bowlers had conceded almost precisely the equivalent total of runs – 57 – from 15, though the bowler grew a somewhat less giving later on, allowing 27 from his final six. He claimed one wicket, holding a smart, low-down catch, falling to his right side, to conclude Bethell's batting stint for 70, facing 80 balls.

Bethell, making up for managing only three in the opening knock, was one of three players fifty-scorers in the Lions' top order. McKinney's scores from opening batsman were steadier than those from their number three: he made 66 in their first innings and went two better in their follow-up, using 61 deliveries for his half-century, with five boundaries and two sixes, each from Bashir's deliveries. Bethell made 68 prior to a mis-hit to Stokes at cover, who made a low catch at low down.

Cox displayed comparable consistency, and built on his initial innings' 53 with another 57, at just over a run a ball. There were some outstandingly handsome hits during his innings, featuring a straight hit and a hook against successive Brydon Carse deliveries to attain his 50 runs.

After missing the opening day of this match with a stomach upset and contributed merely the smallest of efforts to the second, Carse delivered superbly when at last given the opportunity, with Ben McKinney and Cox included in his three scalps.

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