Pope Reinforces Position to England Cricket's No 3 Role with Strong 90 Against Lions

It's hard to gauge how significant of England's preparatory match will be remotely meaningful when their Ashes series battle kicks off 10km away at Perth Stadium on the coming Friday – a short span in space or time but worlds away in importance and atmosphere – but if it accomplished nothing more than enhancing Pope's confidence, that on its own has rendered the effort worthwhile.

The English side's No 3 – that much is certainly completely clear – built on his initial innings hundred by adding a further 90 in the second innings, and the most remarkable was not so much the quantity of scored runs but the style in which they were scored. At times the young batsman looked imperious, smashing a twelve boundaries and a two of maximums, hitting the ball sweetly but with devilish determination.

This was just a practice match versus a Lions squad that deployed exactly 11 bowlers across a contest played in before a small group of onlookers in a open field, but it was nevertheless hugely noteworthy. Officially, England, set a target of 202 once the Lions ended their follow-on innings on 251 for six, won by a margin of five wickets when Jamie Smith hurried the team over the winning target with a stream of fours and sixes.

Crawley and Duckett, the remaining big first-innings' successes, both were dismissed in the second innings, while Root scored further points – 31 on this occasion – but was not enormously more assured, then being puzzled and accordingly bowled by Will Jacks. Brook suffered an similar fate soon afterwards.

Bashir – who ended the match having bowled 12 bowling spells for both teams – will have faced a portion of the batting he bowled to quite aggressive. His initial six deliveries against the Lions conceded 56, with McKinney tucking in to deliveries that if not exactly poor was certainly not very dangerous.

At the end the sixth spell of that period, England's remaining three pitchers had allowed nearly exactly the identical amount of runs – 57 – from 15, though Bashir turned a little less leaky in time, conceding 27 from his final six. He secured one dismissal, holding a sharp, low-down catch, diving to his right, to end Jacob Bethell's knock for 70, off 80 deliveries.

Bethell, making up for scoring only a small score in the opening knock, was one of three players half-centurions in the Lions team's top order. McKinney's returns from opening batsman were more reliable than those of their No 3: he made 66 in their first batting effort and went two better in their follow-up, facing 61 balls over his half-century, with five boundaries and two six-hit shots, both against Bashir's pitching. Jacob Bethell made 68 before a mishit to Ben Stokes at cover, who made a bending grab at ankle height.

Cox showed like steadiness, and built on his first-innings 53 with another 57, at about a scoring rate of one. He played several remarkably elegant strokes on the way, featuring a straight hit and a pull from successive Brydon Carse deliveries to reach his half century.

Following his absence from the first day of this game with a stomach issue and made just the most minor of inputs to the follow-up, Brydon Carse delivered superbly when finally afforded the opportunity, with Ben McKinney and Jordan Cox included in his three wickets.

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