Ollie Pope Strengthens Claim to England Cricket's No 3 Role with Impressive 90 Versus Lions

It is tough to know how significant of England's practice match will be remotely important when their Ashes series battle kicks off 10km away at Perth Stadium on the coming Friday – no distance in geography or duration but light years away in import and environment – but if it managed solely strengthening Ollie Pope's assurance, that on its own has made the exercise beneficial.

England's No 3 – this fact is certainly absolutely certain – built on his first-innings century by scoring a further 90 in the second innings, and the truly notable was less about the number of scored runs but the way in which they were accumulated. At times the young batsman seemed commanding, striking a twelve boundaries and a couple of maximums, connecting with the ball sweetly but with devilish intent.

It was only a exhibition game against a Lions squad that deployed a total of 11 bowlers across a game held in amid a few dozen of spectators in a public park, but it was still very noteworthy. Officially, the England team, needing of 202 once the Lions declared their second innings on 251 for six, triumphed by five wickets in hand once Jamie Smith raced the team past the finish line with a flurry of fours and sixes.

Crawley and Duckett, the two other significant first-innings achievers, both fell short in the follow-up, while Root added additional points – 31 on this instance – but was far from more convincing, before being bemused and accordingly bowled by Jacks. Harry Brook met an similar fate shortly after.

Shoaib Bashir – who concluded the match having delivered 12 bowling spells for each side – will have found some of the strokes he faced rather challenging. His first six overs versus the Lions went for 56, with Ben McKinney taking advantage to bowling that if not completely poor was certainly far from intimidating.

After the sixth spell of that period, the English side's remaining three pitchers had allowed roughly the equivalent amount of points – 57 – from 15, though the bowler became a little less giving in time, giving up 27 from his final six. He claimed a single wicket, taking a clever, low catch, diving to his right, to end Jacob Bethell's batting stint for 70, facing 80 balls.

Bethell, compensating for managing just a small score in the initial innings, was a member of three players half-centurions in the Lions team's leading batsmen. McKinney's performances from opener were more consistent than those from their No 3: he scored 66 in their first batting effort and scored 68 in their second innings, using 61 deliveries over his half-century, with five boundaries and two maximums, the pair against Bashir's's pitching. Jacob Bethell made 68 prior to a poor shot to Ben Stokes at cover, who made a bending grab at shin level.

Cox exhibited similar steadiness, and built on his initial innings' 53 with another 57, at slightly more than a run a ball. He played several remarkably beautiful strokes during his innings, such as a drive down the ground and a pull against successive Brydon Carse balls to achieve his half century.

Having missed the first day of this game with a illness and made merely the least significant of contributions to the second, Carse bowled excellently when finally afforded the opportunity, with McKinney and Cox part of his three dismissals.

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