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

It is difficult to gauge how relevant of the English team's warm-up match will be remotely important when their Ashes battle starts 10km away at the Perth venue on Friday – no distance in space or time but ages away in import and environment – but if it accomplished nothing more than boosting Ollie Pope's self-belief, that by itself has made the exercise valuable.

England's No 3 – that much is certainly totally established – followed his first-innings hundred by notching another 90 in the follow-up innings, and what was remarkable was less about the number of runs but the manner in which they were scored. Periodically the player seemed imperious, striking a twelve fours and a two of maximums, timing the ball beautifully but with aggressive intent.

This was just a exhibition game versus a England Lions side that employed a total of 11 pitchers during a contest held in front of a small group of spectators in a open field, but it was nevertheless extremely impressive. For the record, the England team, chasing of 202 once the Lions ended their follow-on innings on 251 for six, won by five wickets in hand when Jamie Smith sped the team across the conclusion with a flurry of fours and sixes.

Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, the two other major first-innings' achievers, both fell short in the second innings, while Joe Root made further runs – 31 on this instance – but was not enormously more convincing, before being confused and duly bowled by Will Jacks. Brook suffered an identical end shortly after.

Shoaib Bashir – who ended the match having bowled 12 bowling spells for either team – will have found part of the batting he confronted rather aggressive. His first six overs versus the Lions cost 56, with McKinney tucking in to pitching that if not completely wayward was surely not very intimidating.

After the sixth spell of that period, the English side's three other bowlers had conceded nearly exactly the identical amount of points – 57 – from 15, though Bashir grew a slightly less generous in time, allowing 27 from his final six. He took one dismissal, holding a sharp, diving snare, diving to his right, to conclude Jacob Bethell's innings for 70, off 80 balls.

Bethell, compensating for scoring merely three runs in the first innings, was one of three fifty-scorers in the Lions' top four. Ben McKinney's performances from opening batsman were more reliable than the scores of their number three: he scored 66 in their first batting effort and went two better in their second, taking 61 deliveries for his half-century, with five and two six-hit shots, each against Bashir's's deliveries. Bethell made 68 prior to a mis-hit to Stokes at cover position, who made a stooping grab at ankle height.

Jordan Cox displayed like steadiness, and followed his initial innings' 53 with a further 57, at slightly more than a run per delivery. He played a few exceptionally handsome hits on the way, including a straight hit and a pull from successive Brydon Carse balls to achieve his 50 runs.

Having missed the initial day of this game with a stomach upset and contributed only the most minor of inputs to the follow-up, Carse bowled brilliantly when at last afforded the shot, with McKinney and Jordan Cox part of his three scalps.

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