Pope Strengthens Claim to England's No 3 Role with Strong 90 Against Lions

It is difficult to determine how relevant of the English team's practice game will prove important when their Ashes series battle begins not far at Perth Stadium on Friday – no distance in geography or duration but ages away in significance and environment – but if it achieved only boosting Pope's assurance, that alone has made the effort worthwhile.

England's number three batsman – this fact is certainly totally clear – built on his first-innings hundred by adding an additional 90 in the follow-up innings, and what was notable was less about the total of runs but the style in which they were scored. On occasion the 27-year-old looked dominant, smashing a twelve boundaries and a couple of maximums, hitting the ball perfectly but with fierce intent.

It was only a friendly versus a Lions team that used fully 11 bowlers during a contest held in front of a handful of onlookers in a public park, but it was nevertheless very praiseworthy. For the record, England, chasing of 202 after the Lions ended their second innings on 251 for six, succeeded by a margin of five wickets when Smith sped the team across the conclusion with a series of boundaries.

Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, the two other big first-innings achievers, both fell short in the follow-up, while Root made further runs – 31 on this time – but was not enormously more assured, before being confused and duly dismissed by Will Jacks. Harry Brook suffered an identical outcome shortly after.

Shoaib Bashir – who ended the match having bowled 12 overs for both teams – will have encountered a portion of the strokes he faced pretty hostile. His first six overs against the Lions conceded 56, with Ben McKinney tucking in to bowling that if not entirely poor was definitely not very intimidating.

By the conclusion the sixth spell of that period, England's other pitchers had given away nearly exactly the equivalent number of runs – 57 – from 15, though the bowler became a little less giving as time passed, conceding 27 from his remaining six. He took one dismissal, making a sharp, diving snare, falling to his right side, to finish Bethell's batting stint for 70, from 80 deliveries.

Bethell, making up for managing only three in the first innings, was among three players half-centurions in the Lions team's top four. Ben McKinney's performances from opening batsman were more consistent than those from their number three: he made 66 in their initial knock and improved by two in their second, using 61 deliveries for his fifty, with five boundaries and two six-hit shots, both from Bashir's deliveries. Jacob Bethell got to 68 prior to a mis-hit to Stokes at cover, who made a bending grab at low down.

Cox displayed like consistency, and built on his first-innings 53 with a further 57, at just over a run a ball. He played some remarkably handsome hits on the way, such as a drive down the ground and a pull shot off consecutive Brydon Carse balls to reach his 50 runs.

Having missed the initial day of this match with a illness and provided merely the least significant of contributions to the second, Carse pitched superbly when finally afforded the shot, with Ben McKinney and Jordan Cox included in his three wickets.

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