Pope Strengthens Claim to England's Number Three Slot with Impressive 90 Versus Lions

It is difficult to gauge how much of England's warm-up match will be remotely relevant when their Ashes battle kicks off a short distance away at Perth Stadium on Friday – a brief gap in geography or duration but light years away in significance and environment – but if it accomplished solely boosting Ollie Pope's assurance, that alone has rendered the effort valuable.

England's No 3 – this fact is undoubtedly completely clear – followed his first-innings century by scoring an additional 90 in the follow-up innings, and the most impressive was not merely the quantity of runs but the manner in which they were made. At times the young batsman looked dominant, hitting a dozen boundaries and a couple of maximums, connecting with the ball sweetly but with fierce determination.

This was merely a friendly versus a Lions team that employed a total of 11 pitchers across a contest staged in front of a handful of onlookers in a public park, but it was nevertheless very praiseworthy. For the record, England, needing of 202 following the Lions declared their follow-on innings on 251 for six, triumphed by a margin of five wickets after Jamie Smith hurried the team past the finish line with a flurry of fours and sixes.

Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, the remaining significant first-innings' performers, both were dismissed in the second knock, while Joe Root made several more runs – 31 on this occasion – but was not enormously more convincing, then being confused and duly bowled by Jacks. Brook met an same fate shortly after.

Shoaib Bashir – who concluded the fixture having delivered 12 overs for each side – will have encountered some of the hitting he bowled to rather aggressive. His opening six overs against the Lions cost 56, with McKinney tucking in to pitching that if not exactly poor was certainly not overly dangerous.

At the end the sixth spell of that period, the English side's other pitchers had conceded roughly the equivalent total of runs – 57 – from 15, though the bowler became a slightly less leaky as time passed, conceding 27 from his last six. He claimed one dismissal, holding a smart, low-down catch, leaning to his right side, to finish Bethell's innings for 70, from 80 deliveries.

Jacob Bethell, compensating for managing merely a small score in the first innings, was among three players half-centurions in the Lions team's top order. McKinney's scores from opener were steadier than those of their No 3: he made 66 in their initial knock and scored 68 in their follow-up, using 61 balls over his fifty, with five fours and two sixes, the pair off Bashir's's deliveries. Jacob Bethell got to 68 before a poor shot to Ben Stokes at cover, who made a low catch at shin level.

Jordan Cox displayed like steadiness, and backed up his initial innings' 53 with another 57, at about a run per delivery. He produced several remarkably handsome hits during his innings, such as a drive down the ground and a pull shot from back-to-back Brydon Carse deliveries to reach his half century.

Having missed the opening day of this fixture with a stomach upset and made just the most minor of inputs to the second day, Carse bowled excellently when eventually given the shot, with Ben McKinney and Cox among his three dismissals.

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