Ollie Pope Reinforces Position to England Cricket's Number Three Spot with Bold 90 Versus Lions

It is tough to determine how much of the English team's preparatory game will be remotely relevant when their Ashes series contest starts a short distance away at the Perth venue on Friday – a short span in space or time but light years away in import and environment – but if it managed solely strengthening Pope's self-belief, that alone has rendered the exercise valuable.

England's No 3 – that much is certainly totally clear – built on his initial innings hundred by notching another 90 in the second innings, and the truly remarkable was not merely the total of scored runs but the way in which they were accumulated. At times the young batsman appeared imperious, hitting a dozen fours and a pair of maximums, timing the ball beautifully but with aggressive intent.

This was just a practice match versus a Lions team that used fully 11 pitchers throughout a game held in front of a small group of spectators in a open field, but it was nevertheless very praiseworthy. To note, England, needing of 202 after the Lions ended their second innings on 251 for six, triumphed by a margin of five wickets after Smith hurried the team past the finish line with a stream of fours and sixes.

Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, the other two big first-innings achievers, both were dismissed in the follow-up, while Joe Root made additional points – 31 on this time – but was not enormously more convincing, before being confused and duly bowled by Jacks. Harry Brook suffered an identical end a little later.

Shoaib Bashir – who ended the match having delivered 12 bowling spells for each side – will have faced some of the strokes he faced rather aggressive. His opening six overs against the Lions conceded 56, with Ben McKinney tucking in to deliveries that if not exactly loose was surely not overly dangerous.

At the end the sixth of those overs, the English side's other bowlers had allowed almost precisely the identical amount of runs – 57 – from 15, though the bowler grew a slightly less generous in time, conceding 27 from his last six. He took one wicket, holding a sharp, low-down grab, diving to his right side, to end Jacob Bethell's innings for 70, facing 80 deliveries.

Jacob Bethell, making up for scoring merely three in the opening knock, was a member of three fifty-scorers in the Lions team's top order. McKinney's performances from opener were more consistent than those of their No 3: he scored 66 in their first innings and improved by two in their second, facing 61 deliveries over his fifty, with five boundaries and two maximums, each against Bashir's bowling. Bethell reached 68 then a mishit to Ben Stokes at cover, who made a bending grab at shin level.

Cox displayed similar consistency, and built on his initial innings' 53 with a further 57, at about a run a ball. There were a few exceptionally handsome strokes en route, featuring a drive down the ground and a hook against successive Carse balls to reach his fifty.

After missing the opening day of this fixture with a illness and made merely the most minor of contributions to the second, Brydon Carse delivered superbly when at last provided the shot, with McKinney and Jordan Cox part of his three wickets.

The coverage may be updated