Ollie Pope Strengthens Status to England's No 3 Role with Impressive 90 Against Lions

It is tough to determine how much of England's warm-up fixture will be remotely relevant when their Ashes series battle kicks off not far at Perth Stadium on Friday – no distance in geography or duration but worlds away in importance and atmosphere – but if it managed nothing more than boosting Ollie Pope's self-belief, that alone has made the endeavor beneficial.

The English side's number three batsman – this fact is certainly completely established – built on his first-innings ton by notching a further 90 in the follow-up innings, and what was notable was less about the quantity of scored runs but the style in which they were accumulated. On occasion the young batsman seemed commanding, hitting a dozen boundaries and a pair of sixes, timing the ball beautifully but with fierce intent.

This was just a exhibition game against a Lions team that employed a total of 11 bowlers throughout a match played in before a small group of spectators in a open field, but it was still very praiseworthy. To note, the England team, chasing of 202 after the Lions ended their follow-on innings on 251 for six, won by five wickets in hand once Smith hurried the team across the conclusion with a stream of fours and sixes.

Crawley and Duckett, the other two significant first-innings achievers, both fell short in the second innings, while Joe Root made additional points – 31 on this occasion – but was far from more convincing, before being confused and accordingly bowled by Jacks. Harry Brook met an same end soon afterwards.

Bashir – who ended the match having bowled 12 overs for either team – will have faced some of the hitting he bowled to rather hostile. His opening six deliveries versus the Lions cost 56, with Ben McKinney tucking in to pitching that if not exactly loose was surely far from dangerous.

At the end the sixth over of those deliveries, the English side's three other bowlers had allowed nearly exactly the equivalent number of points – 57 – from 15, though the bowler grew a somewhat less giving as time passed, giving up 27 from his final six. He secured one dismissal, taking a clever, diving snare, leaning to his right side, to end Bethell's batting stint for 70, facing 80 deliveries.

Jacob Bethell, compensating for achieving just a small score in the first innings, was one of three fifty-scorers in the Lions team's top order. Ben McKinney's returns from opener were more reliable than those from their No 3: he notched 66 in their first innings and scored 68 in their second, facing 61 deliveries over his fifty, with five fours and two sixes, the pair off Bashir's's deliveries. Bethell reached 68 prior to a poor shot to Stokes at cover, who held a bending grab at low down.

Jordan Cox exhibited comparable reliability, and followed his first-innings 53 with another 57, at just over a scoring rate of one. He played some outstandingly elegant shots on the way, such as a straight drive and a hook off successive Brydon Carse deliveries to reach his fifty.

Having missed the initial day of this game with a stomach upset and contributed merely the smallest of efforts to the follow-up, Carse bowled brilliantly when eventually provided the opportunity, with McKinney and Jordan Cox included in his three dismissals.

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