Ollie Pope Strengthens Position to England's Number Three Role with Impressive 90 Versus Lions

It's hard to gauge how much of the English team's practice fixture will end up being important when their Ashes campaign kicks off a short distance away at the Perth venue on the coming Friday – a brief gap in space or time but light years away in significance and mood – but if it managed nothing more than boosting Pope's assurance, that by itself has rendered the exercise valuable.

England's number three batsman – that much is surely absolutely clear – built on his first-innings century by scoring another 90 in the second, and what was impressive was less about the quantity of scored runs but the manner in which they were accumulated. On occasion the young batsman looked commanding, smashing a dozen fours and a pair of maximums, connecting with the ball sweetly but with fierce determination.

It was just a practice match against a Lions team that used exactly 11 pitchers during a match staged in before a handful of people in a local ground, but it was nonetheless extremely impressive. For the record, England, set a target of 202 after the Lions declared their second innings on 251 for six, won by five wickets when Jamie Smith raced the team past the conclusion with a series of fours and sixes.

Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, the other two big first-innings achievers, both were dismissed in the second knock, while Root made several more points – 31 on this instance – but was not enormously more assured, prior to being bemused and accordingly bowled by Jacks. Harry Brook met an similar outcome soon afterwards.

Bashir – who concluded the game having bowled 12 bowling spells for either team – will have found some of the batting he faced quite challenging. His opening six overs versus the Lions went for 56, with Ben McKinney tucking in to bowling that if not entirely loose was certainly not very threatening.

At the end the sixth of that period, England's remaining three pitchers had given away roughly the identical number of runs – 57 – from 15, though the bowler became a little less leaky later on, allowing 27 from his remaining six. He secured one dismissal, holding a clever, low grab, diving to his right, to end Jacob Bethell's knock for 70, off 80 balls.

Jacob Bethell, making up for managing merely three runs in the initial innings, was a member of three players fifty-scorers in the Lions' top four. McKinney's performances from opener were steadier than those from their number three: he made 66 in their first innings and improved by two in their second innings, facing 61 deliveries for his fifty, with five and a couple six-hit shots, both off Bashir's deliveries. Jacob Bethell made 68 prior to a mis-hit to Stokes at cover position, who held a low grab at shin level.

Cox exhibited like reliability, and followed his first-innings 53 with an additional 57, at about a run per delivery. There were a few exceptionally handsome strokes on the way, such as a drive down the ground and a pull shot against successive Carse deliveries to achieve his half century.

Having missed the first day of this match with a illness and contributed merely the least significant of efforts to the second, Brydon Carse pitched superbly when at last provided the opportunity, with McKinney and Jordan Cox included in his three wickets.

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