Ollie Pope Reinforces Claim to England's Number Three Role with Strong 90 Versus Lions

It's hard to determine how significant of England's practice game will end up being relevant when their Ashes battle kicks off not far at Perth Stadium on the coming Friday – a brief gap in geography or duration but ages away in significance and atmosphere – but if it accomplished nothing more than strengthening Pope's self-belief, that on its own has made the endeavor worthwhile.

England's number three batsman – this fact is certainly completely clear – built on his first-innings century by adding an additional 90 in the second innings, and what was remarkable was not so much the number of scored runs but the style in which they were scored. At times the 27-year-old looked imperious, hitting a dozen boundaries and a pair of sixes, hitting the ball sweetly but with aggressive purpose.

It was just a practice match versus a England Lions side that deployed exactly 11 pitchers across a contest staged in front of a small group of spectators in a public park, but it was still hugely noteworthy. To note, the England team, needing of 202 after the Lions ended their second innings on 251 for six, won by five wickets when Smith hurried the team over the conclusion with a series of fours and sixes.

Crawley and Ben Duckett, the two other significant first-innings' successes, both were dismissed in the second knock, while Root made additional runs – 31 on this time – but was far from more assured, before being confused and subsequently bowled by Jacks. Brook experienced an identical end soon afterwards.

Shoaib Bashir – who ended the match having delivered 12 overs for both teams – will have found part of the strokes he bowled to rather challenging. His initial six deliveries against the Lions went for 56, with Ben McKinney tucking in to pitching that if not completely wayward was surely not overly dangerous.

After the sixth over of that period, the English side's other bowlers had conceded roughly the equivalent number of points – 57 – from 15, though the bowler turned a somewhat less generous in time, allowing 27 from his final six. He secured a single wicket, taking a sharp, low catch, falling to his right, to finish Bethell's knock for 70, facing 80 balls.

Bethell, redeeming scoring just three in the opening knock, was one of a trio of players with fifties in the Lions' top four. McKinney's returns from opener were more reliable than those from their number three: he notched 66 in their initial knock and improved by two in their follow-up, using 61 deliveries for his half-century, with five and two six-hit shots, both against Bashir's deliveries. Bethell made 68 before a mishit to Ben Stokes at cover, who held a bending grab at shin level.

Cox exhibited comparable consistency, and backed up his first-innings 53 with another 57, at slightly more than a scoring rate of one. He played some remarkably elegant shots on the way, including a drive down the ground and a pull off successive Carse deliveries to attain his 50 runs.

Following his absence from the opening day of this match with a illness and contributed merely the most minor of efforts to the second day, Carse delivered brilliantly when eventually afforded the opportunity, with McKinney and Jordan Cox included in his three dismissals.

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