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

It's tough to gauge how significant of England's practice game will prove important when their Ashes contest kicks off not far at the Perth venue on the coming Friday – no distance in geography or duration but worlds away in import and mood – but if it achieved solely boosting Pope's self-belief, that alone has made the effort worthwhile.

England's No 3 – that much is surely completely established – built on his initial innings ton by adding an additional 90 in the follow-up innings, and what was notable was not merely the quantity of scored runs but the style in which they were made. Periodically the player looked imperious, striking a twelve boundaries and a two of sixes, connecting with the ball beautifully but with devilish determination.

It was just a practice match against a England Lions squad that used a total of 11 pitchers across a contest held in before a handful of onlookers in a public park, but it was nevertheless very impressive. To note, the England team, 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 sped the team across the winning target with a flurry of fours and sixes.

Crawley and Duckett, the two other significant first-innings performers, both were dismissed in the second knock, while Joe Root scored several more points – 31 on this instance – but was not significantly more assured, before being bemused and accordingly dismissed by Jacks. Brook suffered an same end a little later.

Shoaib Bashir – who concluded the fixture having delivered 12 bowling spells for both teams – will have faced a portion of the batting he faced quite challenging. His first six deliveries against the Lions cost 56, with McKinney taking advantage to deliveries that if not completely poor was definitely not overly threatening.

After the sixth of those deliveries, England's three other bowlers had allowed nearly exactly the same number of runs – 57 – from 15, though the bowler turned a slightly less leaky later on, giving up 27 from his final six. He claimed one dismissal, taking a smart, low catch, leaning to his right side, to conclude Jacob Bethell's knock for 70, off 80 balls.

Jacob Bethell, compensating for achieving just three runs in the opening knock, was a member of a trio of fifty-scorers in the Lions' leading batsmen. McKinney's returns from opener were more consistent than those of their number three: he notched 66 in their first batting effort and improved by two in their follow-up, facing 61 balls for his fifty, with five fours and a couple six-hit shots, the pair from Bashir's pitching. Jacob Bethell made 68 then a mis-hit to Ben Stokes at cover, who held a low grab at shin level.

Cox showed comparable steadiness, and built on his initial innings' 53 with a further 57, at just over a run a ball. He produced some remarkably handsome shots during his innings, such as a drive down the ground and a pull off back-to-back Brydon Carse deliveries to attain his half century.

Having missed the first day of this game with a illness and made only the least significant of contributions to the follow-up, Carse delivered excellently when at last given the shot, with Ben McKinney and Cox part of his three dismissals.

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