Ollie Pope Strengthens Position to England's Number Three Slot with Strong 90 Against Lions

It is hard to know how relevant of the English team's preparatory game will be remotely meaningful when their Ashes series contest begins not far at the Perth venue on Friday – no distance in space or time but worlds away in import and atmosphere – but if it achieved nothing more than strengthening Ollie Pope's confidence, that alone has made the endeavor valuable.

England's No 3 – this fact is certainly totally established – followed his first-innings ton by scoring another 90 in the second, and the most remarkable was not so much the quantity of runs but the style in which they were scored. At times the 27-year-old looked dominant, hitting a twelve fours and a couple of maximums, hitting the ball perfectly but with aggressive intent.

This was merely a exhibition game versus a Lions team that deployed exactly 11 bowlers across a game held in before a small group of onlookers in a open field, but it was nonetheless extremely impressive. Officially, England, needing of 202 after the Lions closed their follow-on innings on 251 for six, won by five wickets when Smith sped the team past the winning target with a series of fours and sixes.

Crawley and Ben Duckett, the remaining major first-innings successes, both failed in the second innings, while Root scored several more runs – 31 on this time – but was far from more dominant, prior to being puzzled and subsequently out by Jacks. Brook suffered an same end soon afterwards.

Shoaib Bashir – who finished the fixture having bowled 12 bowling spells for each side – will have encountered some of the strokes he faced pretty hostile. His opening six overs versus the Lions went for 56, with McKinney feasting to deliveries that if not exactly wayward was surely far from threatening.

At the end the sixth spell of those overs, the English side's three other pitchers had allowed nearly exactly the identical number of runs – 57 – from 15, though the bowler grew a somewhat less giving as time passed, conceding 27 from his remaining six. He took one wicket, taking a sharp, low catch, diving to his right side, to finish Jacob Bethell's innings for 70, facing 80 deliveries.

Jacob Bethell, compensating for scoring only a small score in the initial innings, was among a trio of fifty-scorers in the Lions team's top four. McKinney's scores from opening batsman were steadier than the scores of their number three: he notched 66 in their first batting effort and went two better in their follow-up, taking 61 balls to reach his fifty, with five fours and two maximums, each against Bashir's deliveries. Bethell reached 68 before a mishit to Stokes at cover position, who took a bending catch at low down.

Cox displayed like steadiness, and built on his first-innings 53 with an additional 57, at about a run a ball. There were some remarkably beautiful strokes en route, such as a straight hit and a pull shot from consecutive Carse deliveries to attain his half century.

Having missed the first day of this game with a illness and contributed just the most minor of efforts to the second day, Carse pitched superbly when finally provided the opportunity, with McKinney and Jordan Cox included in his three wickets.

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