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

It's hard to determine how much of England's warm-up game will end up being meaningful when their Ashes battle starts 10km away at the Perth venue on the coming Friday – a short span in geography or duration but light years away in significance and atmosphere – but if it accomplished solely strengthening Pope's assurance, that alone has rendered the effort beneficial.

England's No 3 – that much is certainly absolutely clear – built on his initial innings century by scoring another 90 in the second, and the truly notable was less about the number of runs but the way in which they were accumulated. On occasion the player appeared dominant, smashing a twelve fours and a two of sixes, connecting with the ball perfectly but with fierce purpose.

It was just a practice match against a England Lions squad that used fully 11 pitchers during a contest staged in front of a small group of people in a open field, but it was nevertheless hugely impressive. To note, England, set a target of 202 following the Lions ended their follow-on innings on 251 for six, succeeded by a margin of five wickets once Jamie Smith sped the team past the conclusion with a flurry of fours and sixes.

Crawley and Duckett, the other two big first-innings achievers, both were dismissed in the follow-up, while Root scored several more runs – 31 on this occasion – but was far from more assured, then being puzzled and subsequently out by Will Jacks. Harry Brook experienced an same outcome a little later.

Bashir – who finished the fixture having delivered 12 overs for both teams – will have faced some of the hitting he bowled to pretty aggressive. His opening six overs against the Lions went for 56, with McKinney feasting to deliveries that if not completely wayward was certainly far from intimidating.

By the conclusion the sixth spell of that period, the English side's other bowlers had allowed nearly exactly the same total of points – 57 – from 15, though Bashir grew a somewhat less leaky as time passed, allowing 27 from his final six. He claimed a single wicket, holding a sharp, low-down snare, falling to his right, to finish Jacob Bethell's knock for 70, off 80 deliveries.

Jacob Bethell, making up for scoring just a small score in the initial innings, was a member of a trio of half-centurions in the Lions team's top four. McKinney's scores from opener were more consistent than the scores of their number three: he made 66 in their first innings and went two better in their second innings, facing 61 balls over his 50 runs, with five and two six-hit shots, the pair off Bashir's deliveries. Bethell made 68 before a poor shot to Stokes at cover position, who took a low grab at low down.

Jordan Cox showed similar consistency, and built on his initial innings' 53 with an additional 57, at just over a scoring rate of one. He played some remarkably elegant strokes on the way, featuring a straight drive and a pull off back-to-back Carse balls to attain his fifty.

Following his absence from the initial day of this game with a illness and contributed merely the most minor of contributions to the follow-up, Carse pitched brilliantly when eventually given the opportunity, with McKinney and Cox part of his three wickets.

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