Ollie Pope Cements Position to England Cricket's No 3 Spot with Bold 90 Against Lions

It's hard to know how much of England's practice match will be remotely relevant when their Ashes battle starts not far at the Perth venue on Friday – no distance in space or time but worlds away in import and environment – but if it achieved nothing more than boosting Ollie Pope's confidence, that alone has made the endeavor valuable.

England's No 3 – this fact is certainly completely clear – followed his initial innings century by scoring another 90 in the second innings, and the most notable was not so much the quantity of scored runs but the manner in which they were scored. Periodically the young batsman appeared commanding, smashing a twelve boundaries and a two of sixes, timing the ball beautifully but with fierce determination.

This was just a exhibition game versus a England Lions side that deployed exactly 11 bowlers throughout a contest staged in front of a small group of spectators in a open field, but it was still hugely noteworthy. To note, England, chasing of 202 once the Lions closed their follow-on innings on 251 for six, won by a margin of five wickets after Jamie Smith raced the team across the finish line with a flurry of boundaries.

Crawley and Duckett, the other two major first-innings achievers, both failed in the second innings, while Joe Root added several more points – 31 on this time – but was not significantly more assured, before being puzzled and subsequently out by Jacks. Brook met an same fate shortly after.

Shoaib Bashir – who finished the match having bowled 12 overs for each side – will have encountered a portion of the strokes he confronted pretty hostile. His initial six overs versus the Lions went for 56, with Ben McKinney taking advantage to deliveries that if not completely poor was definitely far from intimidating.

By the conclusion the sixth spell of that period, England's remaining three pitchers had conceded nearly exactly the same total of points – 57 – from 15, though Bashir grew a slightly less giving in time, allowing 27 from his last six. He took one wicket, making a smart, diving catch, falling to his right, to end Jacob Bethell's innings for 70, facing 80 deliveries.

Jacob Bethell, making up for managing merely three in the initial innings, was one of three players half-centurions in the Lions team's leading batsmen. Ben McKinney's performances from opener were more reliable than those from their number three: he notched 66 in their initial knock and improved by two in their follow-up, taking 61 balls over his half-century, with five fours and a couple sixes, each against Bashir's's pitching. Jacob Bethell made 68 prior to a poor shot to Stokes at cover position, who held a stooping grab at low down.

Jordan Cox showed comparable consistency, and followed his first-innings 53 with an additional 57, at slightly more than a scoring rate of one. There were several outstandingly beautiful shots on the way, including a straight hit and a hook from consecutive Brydon Carse balls to achieve his fifty.

Following his absence from the first day of this game with a illness and made only the least significant of inputs to the second day, Carse pitched excellently when at last provided the chance, with Ben McKinney and Cox part of his three wickets.

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