Ollie Pope Reinforces Claim to England's No 3 Slot with Impressive 90 Against Lions

It is hard to gauge how significant of England's warm-up game will be remotely meaningful when their Ashes contest starts a short distance away at Perth Stadium on Friday – no distance in space or time but worlds away in significance and atmosphere – but if it accomplished solely strengthening Ollie Pope's self-belief, that by itself has made the effort valuable.

England's number three batsman – this fact is undoubtedly absolutely certain – built on his first-innings century by scoring another 90 in the second, and the truly notable was not merely the total of runs but the way in which they were scored. At times the 27-year-old appeared dominant, striking a twelve fours and a two of sixes, timing the ball sweetly but with aggressive purpose.

It was just a exhibition game against a England Lions team that deployed a total of 11 bowlers throughout a match played in front of a handful of spectators in a local ground, but it was still hugely impressive. To note, the England team, chasing of 202 once the Lions ended their follow-on innings on 251 for six, won by five wickets after Jamie Smith raced the team across the winning target with a flurry of boundaries.

Crawley and Ben Duckett, the other two significant first-innings' successes, both were dismissed in the second innings, while Joe Root added several more runs – 31 on this instance – but was not enormously more dominant, then being bemused and duly out by Jacks. Harry Brook suffered an identical end a little later.

Bashir – who concluded the game having delivered 12 overs for either team – will have found part of the strokes he faced rather hostile. His first six overs versus the Lions cost 56, with McKinney tucking in to bowling that if not completely loose was certainly far from threatening.

At the end the sixth over of those overs, England's remaining three bowlers had given away nearly exactly the same total of runs – 57 – from 15, though Bashir grew a somewhat less giving later on, giving up 27 from his remaining six. He secured one wicket, making a smart, low catch, diving to his right, to end Jacob Bethell's batting stint for 70, facing 80 deliveries.

Bethell, compensating for scoring only three runs in the initial innings, was a member of three players players with fifties in the Lions team's top four. Ben McKinney's scores from opener were steadier than those from their No 3: he notched 66 in their initial knock and improved by two in their second, using 61 deliveries to reach his 50 runs, with five boundaries and two sixes, both from Bashir's deliveries. Bethell reached 68 prior to a mis-hit to Stokes at cover position, who made a stooping grab at low down.

Jordan Cox showed similar consistency, and backed up his first-innings 53 with another 57, at about a run per delivery. There were several remarkably handsome strokes en route, including a drive down the ground and a pull shot against consecutive Brydon Carse balls to attain his 50 runs.

After missing the opening day of this fixture with a stomach upset and contributed just the most minor of inputs to the second day, Brydon Carse delivered excellently when finally provided the opportunity, with Ben McKinney and Jordan Cox among his three wickets.

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