Ollie Pope Strengthens Claim to England's No 3 Spot with Strong 90 Against Lions

It's tough to determine how relevant of the English team's practice fixture will prove meaningful when their Ashes campaign starts 10km away at the Perth venue on the coming Friday – a short span in space or time but ages away in significance and mood – but if it managed nothing more than enhancing Ollie Pope's confidence, that by itself has rendered the exercise valuable.

England's number three batsman – that point is certainly totally clear – built on his initial innings century by scoring an additional 90 in the second, and the most impressive was less about the total of runs but the style in which they were scored. Periodically the 27-year-old seemed imperious, striking a dozen fours and a pair of maximums, timing the ball beautifully but with devilish intent.

It was just a friendly against a Lions team that employed fully 11 bowlers throughout a match held in front of a small group of people in a local ground, but it was still very noteworthy. For the record, England, chasing of 202 after the Lions ended their second innings on 251 for six, triumphed by a margin of five wickets when Smith sped the team over the conclusion with a series of fours and sixes.

Crawley and Ben Duckett, the two other significant first-innings' successes, both failed in the second knock, while Root added additional points – 31 on this instance – but was not significantly more dominant, prior to being confused and accordingly out by Jacks. Brook experienced an similar end a little later.

Shoaib Bashir – who finished the fixture having delivered 12 bowling spells for either team – will have encountered a portion of the batting he bowled to pretty aggressive. His first six overs versus the Lions conceded 56, with Ben McKinney tucking in to bowling that if not entirely loose was surely not overly threatening.

At the end the sixth over of those deliveries, the English side's other bowlers had allowed almost precisely the same total of runs – 57 – from 15, though Bashir grew a little less leaky in time, allowing 27 from his last six. He took one dismissal, taking a smart, diving grab, falling to his right, to finish Jacob Bethell's knock for 70, off 80 deliveries.

Bethell, compensating for managing just a small score in the opening knock, was among three fifty-scorers in the Lions team's top four. McKinney's performances from opener were more reliable than those from their number three: he made 66 in their first innings and scored 68 in their second innings, taking 61 deliveries to reach his 50 runs, with five fours and a couple maximums, both off Bashir's pitching. Bethell made 68 before a poor shot to Stokes at cover, who made a bending grab at low down.

Jordan Cox displayed similar steadiness, and backed up his initial innings' 53 with an additional 57, at about a scoring rate of one. He produced several exceptionally beautiful hits on the way, featuring a drive down the ground and a pull shot from successive Carse balls to reach his half century.

After missing the initial day of this fixture with a stomach upset and contributed merely the smallest of efforts to the second, Carse delivered brilliantly when finally given the shot, with McKinney and Cox part of his three wickets.

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