Ollie Pope Strengthens Claim to England's No 3 Role with Impressive 90 Against Lions

It's difficult to gauge how significant of the English team's preparatory fixture will end up being meaningful when their Ashes battle kicks off 10km away at the Perth venue on the coming Friday – no distance in space or time but light years away in import and atmosphere – but if it achieved only strengthening Pope's confidence, that alone has made the effort worthwhile.

The English side's No 3 – this fact is undoubtedly absolutely certain – built on his first-innings hundred by adding an additional 90 in the follow-up innings, and the most impressive was not merely the total of scored runs but the way in which they were made. At times the young batsman appeared imperious, striking a dozen boundaries and a two of maximums, timing the ball perfectly but with aggressive determination.

This was merely a practice match versus a England Lions team that employed a total of 11 pitchers during a match played in before a handful of spectators in a local ground, but it was nevertheless hugely praiseworthy. For the record, the England team, set a target of 202 once the Lions closed their follow-on innings on 251 for six, won by five wickets after Jamie Smith raced the team past the conclusion with a stream of fours and sixes.

Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, the other two major first-innings performers, both failed in the second innings, while Joe Root made several more runs – 31 on this time – but was not enormously more assured, prior to being puzzled and subsequently out by Will Jacks. Brook experienced an similar fate soon afterwards.

Bashir – who concluded the match having delivered 12 bowling spells for each side – will have faced some of the hitting he bowled to pretty aggressive. His opening six overs versus the Lions conceded 56, with Ben McKinney feasting to deliveries that if not completely wayward was certainly not very threatening.

After the sixth spell of those overs, England's other bowlers had allowed nearly exactly the equivalent total of points – 57 – from 15, though the bowler grew a slightly less leaky as time passed, allowing 27 from his last six. He claimed one wicket, taking a clever, low catch, diving to his right, to finish Jacob Bethell's batting stint for 70, facing 80 deliveries.

Bethell, making up for managing just a small score in the initial innings, was among three players players with fifties in the Lions' top order. McKinney's performances from opener were steadier than those of their number three: he made 66 in their first innings and improved by two in their second, using 61 deliveries for his 50 runs, with five boundaries and two six-hit shots, both from Bashir's deliveries. Bethell made 68 before a poor shot to Stokes at cover position, who took a low catch at ankle height.

Jordan Cox exhibited like steadiness, and followed his first-innings 53 with a further 57, at about a scoring rate of one. He played several outstandingly beautiful strokes during his innings, such as a drive down the ground and a hook off successive Carse deliveries to attain his half century.

After missing the opening day of this match with a stomach issue and provided just the smallest of inputs to the follow-up, Carse pitched excellently when finally afforded the opportunity, with McKinney and Jordan Cox included in his three scalps.

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