Pope Reinforces Claim to England's Number Three Spot with Strong 90 Against Lions

It is tough to gauge how much of England's warm-up game will prove important when their Ashes series campaign begins not far at Perth Stadium on the coming Friday – no distance in geography or duration but ages away in importance and environment – but if it accomplished solely strengthening Ollie Pope's self-belief, that on its own has made the endeavor valuable.

The English side's number three batsman – this fact is certainly totally established – followed his first-innings hundred by scoring another 90 in the second, and the most remarkable was not merely the quantity of scored runs but the style in which they were accumulated. Periodically the young batsman appeared dominant, striking a dozen fours and a couple of sixes, timing the ball sweetly but with aggressive determination.

It was only a friendly versus a Lions team that employed fully 11 pitchers during a game staged in before a small group of onlookers in a open field, but it was still very impressive. Officially, England, needing of 202 after the Lions ended their second innings on 251 for six, triumphed by five wickets in hand after Smith sped the team across the conclusion with a flurry of fours and sixes.

Crawley and Ben Duckett, the two other significant first-innings performers, both were dismissed in the second innings, while Root scored further runs – 31 on this time – but was far from more dominant, prior to being puzzled and subsequently out by Will Jacks. Brook met an similar outcome a little later.

Bashir – who finished the match having bowled 12 bowling spells for either team – will have faced some of the strokes he bowled to rather aggressive. His initial six deliveries versus the Lions went for 56, with Ben McKinney feasting to bowling that if not completely loose was certainly not very threatening.

At the end the sixth over of those deliveries, the English side's three other pitchers had given away roughly the same number of points – 57 – from 15, though the bowler grew a somewhat less giving as time passed, allowing 27 from his remaining six. He took one dismissal, holding a clever, low-down catch, falling to his right side, to conclude Bethell's knock for 70, from 80 balls.

Bethell, compensating for scoring merely three in the initial innings, was one of three players with fifties in the Lions' leading batsmen. McKinney's returns from opening batsman were more reliable than the scores of their number three: he scored 66 in their first innings and improved by two in their second innings, taking 61 balls over his half-century, with five boundaries and two six-hit shots, both off Bashir's bowling. Jacob Bethell got to 68 before a poor shot to Stokes at cover, who took a bending catch at ankle height.

Jordan Cox showed similar reliability, and built on his first-innings 53 with an additional 57, at about a scoring rate of one. He played some exceptionally elegant shots en route, such as a straight hit and a pull shot against back-to-back Brydon Carse deliveries to reach his half century.

Following his absence from the opening day of this match with a stomach upset and contributed only the least significant of efforts to the second, Carse delivered superbly when finally given the chance, with McKinney and Jordan Cox part of his three dismissals.

This report will update