Ollie Pope Cements Status to England Cricket's No 3 Spot with Impressive 90 Against Lions

It's hard to determine how significant of England's practice game will end up being relevant when their Ashes contest begins 10km away at Perth Stadium on Friday – a brief gap in geography or duration but worlds away in significance and atmosphere – but if it achieved solely enhancing Ollie Pope's confidence, that by itself has rendered the exercise valuable.

England's number three batsman – this fact is surely completely established – followed his first-innings hundred by adding another 90 in the second, and the truly impressive was not merely the total of runs but the manner in which they were scored. At times the young batsman looked dominant, smashing a dozen fours and a pair of maximums, hitting the ball beautifully but with devilish determination.

It was only a practice match versus a England Lions team that deployed fully 11 bowlers throughout a game staged in amid a handful of spectators in a public park, but it was still extremely praiseworthy. Officially, the England team, chasing of 202 once the Lions ended their second innings on 251 for six, won by five wickets once Smith raced the team past the conclusion with a series of fours and sixes.

Crawley and Duckett, the two other significant first-innings performers, both were dismissed in the second innings, while Joe Root made additional runs – 31 on this time – but was not significantly more convincing, prior to being confused and subsequently bowled by Jacks. Harry Brook experienced an same end soon afterwards.

Shoaib Bashir – who finished the match having bowled 12 bowling spells for both teams – will have encountered part of the batting he faced rather hostile. His first six deliveries against the Lions went for 56, with Ben McKinney taking advantage to deliveries that if not exactly wayward was surely not very dangerous.

After the sixth of those deliveries, England's three other bowlers had allowed nearly exactly the same total of points – 57 – from 15, though the bowler turned a slightly less giving in time, allowing 27 from his final six. He claimed one dismissal, making a clever, low-down snare, falling to his right, to end Jacob Bethell's knock for 70, facing 80 balls.

Bethell, compensating for managing merely three runs in the first innings, was among a trio of players with fifties in the Lions team's top order. McKinney's returns from opener were more consistent than those of their No 3: he scored 66 in their initial knock and scored 68 in their second innings, using 61 deliveries to reach his half-century, with five boundaries and two maximums, the pair against Bashir's deliveries. Bethell made 68 prior to a mishit to Stokes at cover position, who held a low grab at ankle height.

Jordan Cox showed comparable consistency, and backed up his first-innings 53 with a further 57, at just over a run a ball. There were several remarkably handsome hits during his innings, featuring a drive down the ground and a pull shot from successive Brydon Carse balls to attain his half century.

Having missed the first day of this fixture with a stomach issue and provided just the most minor of efforts to the second day, Carse pitched superbly when at last provided the opportunity, with McKinney and Jordan Cox part of his three wickets.

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