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

It is difficult to determine how much of England's practice game will be remotely meaningful when their Ashes series battle begins not far at the Perth venue on the coming Friday – no distance in geography or duration but light years away in import and mood – but if it managed solely strengthening Ollie Pope's self-belief, that by itself has made the endeavor worthwhile.

The English side's No 3 – this fact is surely completely certain – followed his initial innings century by scoring another 90 in the follow-up innings, and what was impressive was less about the total of runs but the manner in which they were accumulated. At times the 27-year-old seemed commanding, striking a twelve boundaries and a pair of sixes, connecting with the ball sweetly but with aggressive purpose.

It was just a exhibition game against a England Lions side that deployed exactly 11 bowlers throughout a match played in before a handful of spectators in a open field, but it was still hugely impressive. To note, England, set a target of 202 following the Lions declared their follow-on innings on 251 for six, won by five wickets in hand when Smith raced the team over the finish line with a stream of boundaries.

Crawley and Ben Duckett, the other two big first-innings' performers, both fell short in the second innings, while Root scored additional points – 31 on this time – but was not significantly more assured, before being confused and subsequently bowled by Will Jacks. Brook experienced an same end soon afterwards.

Bashir – who finished the match having bowled 12 overs for either team – will have faced part of the strokes he faced pretty challenging. His initial six deliveries against the Lions conceded 56, with McKinney taking advantage to pitching that if not exactly loose was surely not very threatening.

At the end the sixth spell of that period, England's three other pitchers had conceded almost precisely the same number of runs – 57 – from 15, though Bashir turned a slightly less leaky as time passed, giving up 27 from his final six. He took a single wicket, making a clever, low catch, falling to his right, to conclude Jacob Bethell's batting stint for 70, facing 80 balls.

Bethell, making up for scoring only three in the initial innings, was among three players fifty-scorers in the Lions' leading batsmen. McKinney's scores from opening batsman were steadier than those of their No 3: he made 66 in their first innings and scored 68 in their second innings, using 61 balls over his 50 runs, with five fours and a couple six-hit shots, each against Bashir's pitching. Bethell got to 68 then a mishit to Stokes at cover position, who made a stooping grab at ankle height.

Jordan Cox showed like reliability, and built on his first-innings 53 with a further 57, at just over a scoring rate of one. He played several remarkably handsome strokes on the way, featuring a straight hit and a hook from consecutive Brydon Carse balls to achieve his 50 runs.

After missing the opening day of this game with a stomach issue and made only the least significant of contributions to the second, Carse delivered superbly when eventually given the shot, with McKinney and Jordan Cox part of his three scalps.

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