Ollie Pope Cements Claim to England's No 3 Slot with Strong 90 Against Lions

It is hard to know how much of the English team's warm-up match will end up being meaningful when their Ashes battle begins not far at Perth Stadium on Friday – a short span in geography or duration but ages away in significance and atmosphere – but if it achieved nothing more than strengthening Ollie Pope's assurance, that on its own has made the exercise valuable.

The English side's No 3 – that point is certainly totally established – followed his initial innings century by scoring a further 90 in the follow-up innings, and the truly impressive was not so much the quantity of scored runs but the style in which they were made. On occasion the young batsman seemed dominant, smashing a dozen boundaries and a couple of sixes, timing the ball beautifully but with aggressive determination.

This was only a exhibition game versus a England Lions team that employed a total of 11 pitchers throughout a game staged in before a handful of spectators in a local ground, but it was nonetheless very praiseworthy. To note, the England team, needing of 202 after the Lions declared their second innings on 251 for six, succeeded by five wickets in hand when Jamie Smith sped the team over the winning target with a flurry of fours and sixes.

Crawley and Ben Duckett, the other two big first-innings' performers, both were dismissed in the second knock, while Root made further runs – 31 on this occasion – but was far from more convincing, before being confused and duly bowled by Will Jacks. Brook met an identical outcome shortly after.

Bashir – who concluded the match having bowled 12 overs for either team – will have found some of the hitting he confronted rather challenging. His initial six overs against the Lions went for 56, with Ben McKinney taking advantage to pitching that if not exactly wayward was surely not overly intimidating.

By the conclusion the sixth over of that period, the English side's other pitchers had allowed nearly exactly the identical amount of points – 57 – from 15, though the bowler turned a little less leaky as time passed, conceding 27 from his final six. He secured a single wicket, taking a sharp, low snare, falling to his right, to end Jacob Bethell's batting stint for 70, facing 80 balls.

Jacob Bethell, compensating for achieving only three runs in the initial innings, was among three half-centurions in the Lions team's top order. McKinney's scores from opening batsman were steadier than those from their No 3: he notched 66 in their first innings and went two better in their follow-up, using 61 balls to reach his half-century, with five boundaries and two maximums, each from Bashir's pitching. Bethell got to 68 before a mishit to Ben Stokes at cover position, who took a low grab at ankle height.

Cox showed comparable consistency, and followed his initial innings' 53 with a further 57, at slightly more than a run a ball. There were several outstandingly handsome strokes on the way, including a drive down the ground and a hook against consecutive Brydon Carse deliveries to achieve his 50 runs.

Following his absence from the opening day of this game with a stomach issue and made merely the most minor of contributions to the second, Carse bowled brilliantly when eventually given the shot, with McKinney and Jordan Cox included in his three scalps.

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