Pope Reinforces Claim to England Cricket's No 3 Slot with Strong 90 Against Lions

It's tough to determine how relevant of the English team's practice fixture will be remotely relevant when their Ashes contest starts not far at Perth Stadium on Friday – a brief gap in geography or duration but light years away in significance and environment – but if it accomplished solely strengthening Ollie Pope's self-belief, that on its own has rendered the exercise worthwhile.

England's No 3 – that point is certainly totally certain – built on his initial innings century by notching another 90 in the second innings, and the truly impressive was less about the number of runs but the way in which they were accumulated. On occasion the player seemed commanding, hitting a twelve fours and a pair of sixes, timing the ball perfectly but with aggressive intent.

This was just a practice match versus a England Lions squad that used fully 11 pitchers across a game staged in amid a handful of people in a open field, but it was nevertheless extremely praiseworthy. To note, England, needing of 202 after the Lions ended their second innings on 251 for six, won by a margin of five wickets once Jamie Smith raced the team past the winning target with a series of boundaries.

Crawley and Duckett, the other two significant first-innings' achievers, both fell short in the second innings, while Joe Root scored several more points – 31 on this time – but was not significantly more dominant, before being puzzled and duly bowled by Will Jacks. Brook suffered an same fate a little later.

Bashir – who concluded the fixture having delivered 12 overs for either team – will have encountered a portion of the hitting he bowled to quite challenging. His first six deliveries against the Lions went for 56, with McKinney tucking in to deliveries that if not entirely poor was certainly not overly dangerous.

At the end the sixth spell of those deliveries, England's remaining three pitchers had allowed roughly the same total of runs – 57 – from 15, though the bowler grew a little less generous in time, giving up 27 from his final six. He took a single wicket, making a smart, low catch, falling to his right side, to end Bethell's innings for 70, facing 80 balls.

Jacob Bethell, making up for managing only a small score in the initial innings, was among three fifty-scorers in the Lions team's top four. Ben McKinney's performances from opener were steadier than the scores of their number three: he notched 66 in their initial knock and went two better in their second, using 61 balls over his half-century, with five fours and two sixes, both against Bashir's's bowling. Bethell got to 68 then a mis-hit to Stokes at cover, who took a stooping catch at low down.

Cox displayed comparable consistency, and built on his initial innings' 53 with a further 57, at about a run per delivery. There were some exceptionally handsome strokes en route, such as a straight drive and a pull from consecutive Carse balls to achieve his half century.

After missing the initial day of this fixture with a illness and made just the smallest of inputs to the follow-up, Brydon Carse pitched brilliantly when eventually given the shot, with Ben McKinney and Jordan Cox among his three scalps.

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