Ollie Pope Reinforces Claim to England's No 3 Spot with Impressive 90 Versus Lions

It is hard to gauge how much of England's preparatory fixture will be remotely relevant when their Ashes series contest starts a short distance away at the Perth venue on Friday – no distance in space or time but ages away in import and mood – but if it accomplished only strengthening Pope's assurance, that by itself has rendered the effort valuable.

England's number three batsman – that point is certainly totally clear – built on his initial innings century by scoring a further 90 in the second innings, and the most notable was not so much the number of runs but the style in which they were accumulated. Periodically the player seemed commanding, striking a dozen fours and a couple of maximums, timing the ball perfectly but with devilish intent.

It was just a friendly versus a Lions side that deployed fully 11 pitchers throughout a contest held in amid a handful of spectators in a public park, but it was still extremely praiseworthy. For the record, England, set a target of 202 after the Lions ended their second innings on 251 for six, succeeded by a margin of five wickets when Jamie Smith raced the team across the conclusion with a flurry of boundaries.

Zak Crawley and Duckett, the remaining significant first-innings achievers, both failed in the second knock, while Root made several more points – 31 on this time – but was not significantly more convincing, then being puzzled and subsequently bowled by Will Jacks. Brook experienced an same end shortly after.

Bashir – who concluded the game having delivered 12 bowling spells for both teams – will have found some of the batting he bowled to rather hostile. His opening six deliveries against the Lions went for 56, with McKinney feasting to pitching that if not completely wayward was surely not overly intimidating.

After the sixth spell of those deliveries, the English side's three other pitchers had allowed roughly the same total of runs – 57 – from 15, though the bowler became a slightly less leaky in time, allowing 27 from his final six. He took a single wicket, taking a sharp, low-down catch, diving to his right side, to end Jacob Bethell's batting stint for 70, from 80 balls.

Bethell, making up for achieving merely a small score in the opening knock, was one of a trio of fifty-scorers in the Lions team's leading batsmen. Ben McKinney's scores from opening batsman were more reliable than the scores of their No 3: he scored 66 in their first batting effort and went two better in their second, using 61 balls for his half-century, with five and a couple maximums, the pair from Bashir's's pitching. Jacob Bethell reached 68 then a mis-hit to Stokes at cover position, who took a low grab at ankle height.

Cox showed similar reliability, and built on his first-innings 53 with a further 57, at slightly more than a run a ball. He produced a few exceptionally elegant shots on the way, featuring a drive down the ground and a hook from back-to-back Carse balls to achieve his fifty.

Following his absence from the initial day of this fixture with a illness and made just the most minor of contributions to the second, Carse delivered superbly when eventually provided the opportunity, with Ben McKinney and Cox among his three dismissals.

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