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

It is tough to determine how much of England's warm-up match will prove relevant when their Ashes series contest begins a short distance away at the Perth venue on Friday – no distance in space or time but light years away in import and atmosphere – but if it accomplished only enhancing Ollie Pope's assurance, that on its own has rendered the effort beneficial.

The English side's No 3 – that much is undoubtedly completely clear – followed his initial innings hundred by adding a further 90 in the follow-up innings, and the most impressive was not so much the total of scored runs but the way in which they were scored. At times the player looked commanding, hitting a twelve fours and a two of maximums, timing the ball beautifully but with aggressive determination.

This was merely a friendly against a England Lions team that employed fully 11 bowlers across a contest held in amid a handful of people in a public park, but it was nevertheless hugely praiseworthy. Officially, the England team, chasing of 202 after the Lions ended their second innings on 251 for six, triumphed by five wickets in hand when Jamie Smith sped the team over the winning target with a series of boundaries.

Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, the other two significant first-innings' successes, both failed in the follow-up, while Root made further runs – 31 on this time – but was not significantly more dominant, before being puzzled and subsequently dismissed by Jacks. Brook experienced an identical end soon afterwards.

Shoaib Bashir – who concluded the game having delivered 12 overs for either team – will have found part of the hitting he confronted quite hostile. His opening six deliveries against the Lions conceded 56, with McKinney feasting to bowling that if not exactly wayward was definitely not overly dangerous.

After the sixth over of those deliveries, the English side's other pitchers had conceded roughly the equivalent number of runs – 57 – from 15, though Bashir grew a slightly less giving later on, giving up 27 from his final six. He secured a single wicket, making a sharp, low grab, diving to his right side, to conclude Bethell's innings for 70, off 80 balls.

Bethell, compensating for managing merely three runs in the first innings, was one of a trio of players with fifties in the Lions team's leading batsmen. Ben McKinney's performances from opener were more consistent than those of their number three: he made 66 in their first innings and scored 68 in their second innings, facing 61 balls for his fifty, with five and two sixes, each against Bashir's bowling. Bethell reached 68 prior to a mis-hit to Stokes at cover position, who held a stooping catch at low down.

Jordan Cox displayed similar reliability, and built on his first-innings 53 with a further 57, at just over a run per delivery. He produced several outstandingly elegant shots on the way, featuring a drive down the ground and a pull shot off successive Brydon Carse balls to attain his fifty.

Following his absence from the first day of this fixture with a illness and provided just the most minor of efforts to the second, Carse delivered excellently when at last provided the opportunity, with McKinney and Jordan Cox included in his three wickets.

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