Ollie Pope Strengthens Position to England Cricket's No 3 Spot with Strong 90 Versus Lions

It is tough to determine how much of England's preparatory fixture will be remotely relevant when their Ashes contest begins 10km away at the Perth venue on the coming Friday – a short span in geography or duration but worlds away in importance and atmosphere – but if it accomplished solely boosting Pope's assurance, that by itself has made the effort beneficial.

The English side's number three batsman – this fact is surely absolutely clear – built on his first-innings century by scoring another 90 in the second, and the truly impressive was not merely the total of runs but the style in which they were made. Periodically the young batsman looked imperious, striking a twelve boundaries and a two of sixes, connecting with the ball sweetly but with aggressive purpose.

It was merely a exhibition game versus a Lions team that used fully 11 pitchers throughout a game held in before a handful of onlookers in a local ground, but it was nonetheless very impressive. To note, the England team, set a target of 202 following the Lions closed their second innings on 251 for six, succeeded by five wickets in hand once Smith raced the team across the winning target with a stream of fours and sixes.

Crawley and Duckett, the remaining big first-innings performers, both fell short in the second innings, while Root made several more points – 31 on this time – but was far from more convincing, prior to being puzzled and duly bowled by Will Jacks. Brook suffered an identical fate soon afterwards.

Shoaib Bashir – who ended the fixture having delivered 12 overs for each side – will have found a portion of the batting he bowled to quite hostile. His opening six deliveries versus the Lions conceded 56, with Ben McKinney feasting to pitching that if not entirely wayward was certainly not very dangerous.

By the conclusion the sixth of those overs, England's other bowlers had allowed roughly the identical total of runs – 57 – from 15, though the bowler became a slightly less generous later on, allowing 27 from his remaining six. He secured one wicket, holding a clever, low-down catch, falling to his right side, to finish Bethell's batting stint for 70, facing 80 balls.

Jacob Bethell, making up for managing merely three runs in the initial innings, was one of three half-centurions in the Lions' leading batsmen. McKinney's scores from opening batsman were steadier than the scores of their No 3: he made 66 in their first innings and improved by two in their follow-up, taking 61 deliveries over his 50 runs, with five boundaries and two sixes, both from Bashir's bowling. Jacob Bethell reached 68 then a mishit to Ben Stokes at cover position, who took a low catch at low down.

Jordan Cox exhibited similar steadiness, and backed up his initial innings' 53 with a further 57, at about a run per delivery. He played several remarkably elegant strokes on the way, such as a drive down the ground and a pull shot off successive Carse deliveries to reach his 50 runs.

Having missed the opening day of this match with a stomach upset and provided only the most minor of contributions to the second, Brydon Carse bowled superbly when eventually afforded the shot, with McKinney and Cox included in his three scalps.

This report will update