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

It is hard to gauge how significant of the English team's warm-up fixture will prove important when their Ashes series contest begins 10km away at Perth Stadium on the coming Friday – a brief gap in space or time but ages away in importance and mood – but if it accomplished nothing more than enhancing Pope's confidence, that on its own has made the effort worthwhile.

The English side's number three batsman – that much is certainly completely certain – followed his first-innings ton by scoring an additional 90 in the follow-up innings, and the most impressive was less about the total of runs but the manner in which they were made. At times the 27-year-old appeared dominant, hitting a twelve fours and a two of sixes, connecting with the ball sweetly but with fierce determination.

This was just a friendly against a Lions side that employed fully 11 bowlers during a game held in before a small group of people in a public park, but it was nevertheless hugely impressive. Officially, England, chasing of 202 once the Lions closed their second innings on 251 for six, succeeded by a margin of five wickets once Jamie Smith sped the team across the conclusion with a series of boundaries.

Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, the remaining big first-innings' performers, both were dismissed in the second innings, while Joe Root made several more points – 31 on this time – but was not significantly more convincing, before being puzzled and duly dismissed by Jacks. Brook experienced an same outcome a little later.

Bashir – who ended the match having bowled 12 bowling spells for each side – will have found part of the strokes he faced rather challenging. His opening six deliveries against the Lions conceded 56, with Ben McKinney tucking in to bowling that if not entirely wayward was surely far from intimidating.

By the conclusion the sixth over of those overs, the English side's three other bowlers had conceded roughly the identical number of runs – 57 – from 15, though Bashir turned a slightly less giving as time passed, conceding 27 from his last six. He secured a single wicket, holding a smart, low catch, diving to his right, to end Jacob Bethell's innings for 70, off 80 balls.

Jacob Bethell, redeeming managing merely three runs in the first innings, was a member of three players with fifties in the Lions' top order. Ben McKinney's scores from opening batsman were more consistent than those of their No 3: he notched 66 in their first innings and improved by two in their second, using 61 deliveries over his 50 runs, with five and two six-hit shots, both against Bashir's deliveries. Bethell got to 68 before a poor shot to Stokes at cover position, who took a bending grab at low down.

Cox showed similar consistency, and followed his first-innings 53 with a further 57, at just over a run a ball. He played some remarkably elegant hits during his innings, including a straight hit and a pull shot against consecutive Brydon Carse balls to achieve his 50 runs.

Following his absence from the first day of this game with a stomach upset and provided just the least significant of inputs to the follow-up, Carse pitched brilliantly when finally given the chance, with Ben McKinney and Jordan Cox included in his three wickets.

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