Ollie Pope Strengthens Position to England Cricket's Number Three Slot with Strong 90 Against Lions

It's hard to know how significant of the English team's preparatory fixture will end up being important when their Ashes series contest starts not far at the Perth venue on Friday – a short span in geography or duration but light years away in importance and mood – but if it managed only boosting Pope's confidence, that alone has rendered the exercise valuable.

England's No 3 – that point is undoubtedly completely established – followed his initial innings ton by notching a further 90 in the second innings, and the truly remarkable was not so much the number of scored runs but the way in which they were accumulated. Periodically the player looked imperious, striking a twelve boundaries and a couple of maximums, connecting with the ball sweetly but with devilish purpose.

This was just a exhibition game against a England Lions team that deployed fully 11 bowlers throughout a game played in before a small group of spectators in a open field, but it was nevertheless extremely noteworthy. For the record, the England team, chasing of 202 following the Lions declared their second innings on 251 for six, won by a margin of five wickets once Jamie Smith sped the team across the conclusion with a series of boundaries.

Zak Crawley and Duckett, the remaining big first-innings' achievers, both were dismissed in the second knock, while Root made additional runs – 31 on this time – but was not enormously more dominant, then being puzzled and accordingly dismissed by Will Jacks. Harry Brook experienced an similar end shortly after.

Shoaib Bashir – who concluded the match having bowled 12 bowling spells for either team – will have faced part of the strokes he faced rather aggressive. His first six overs against the Lions conceded 56, with McKinney tucking in to pitching that if not completely wayward was certainly far from threatening.

After the sixth spell of those overs, the English side's three other bowlers had conceded roughly the equivalent amount of runs – 57 – from 15, though the bowler turned a slightly less leaky later on, allowing 27 from his remaining six. He took a single wicket, making a smart, low catch, diving to his right, to conclude Jacob Bethell's innings for 70, facing 80 balls.

Jacob Bethell, compensating for scoring just a small score in the first innings, was a member of a trio of half-centurions in the Lions' leading batsmen. McKinney's scores from opening batsman were more consistent than those of their number three: he scored 66 in their first innings and went two better in their second, taking 61 balls over his fifty, with five boundaries and two maximums, the pair from Bashir's's bowling. Jacob Bethell made 68 before a mishit to Ben Stokes at cover position, who made a bending catch at ankle height.

Jordan Cox exhibited comparable reliability, and followed his initial innings' 53 with another 57, at slightly more than a run a ball. He produced a few exceptionally elegant strokes on the way, including a straight hit and a pull shot from back-to-back Carse balls to attain his 50 runs.

Having missed the opening day of this match with a stomach issue and contributed merely the least significant of inputs to the second, Carse pitched excellently when at last provided the chance, with McKinney and Jordan Cox included in his three dismissals.

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