Pope Strengthens Status to England's Number Three Role with Bold 90 Against Lions

It is tough to know how much of the English team's practice game will prove meaningful when their Ashes battle starts a short distance away at Perth Stadium on the coming Friday – no distance in space or time but worlds away in import and mood – but if it managed solely boosting Pope's assurance, that by itself has made the exercise beneficial.

The English side's number three batsman – this fact is undoubtedly totally established – followed his initial innings hundred by scoring another 90 in the second innings, and what was impressive was not merely the quantity of runs but the manner in which they were scored. On occasion the player appeared commanding, hitting a twelve fours and a two of maximums, timing the ball sweetly but with devilish purpose.

It was only a exhibition game versus a England Lions team that used a total of 11 bowlers during a match played in front of a handful of people in a local ground, but it was nevertheless very praiseworthy. For the record, England, set a target of 202 following the Lions closed their second innings on 251 for six, triumphed by five wickets in hand once Jamie Smith sped the team across the conclusion with a flurry of fours and sixes.

Crawley and Ben Duckett, the remaining major first-innings successes, both were dismissed in the follow-up, while Joe Root made further points – 31 on this time – but was far from more assured, then being confused and subsequently dismissed by Jacks. Brook experienced an similar outcome soon afterwards.

Shoaib Bashir – who ended the game having delivered 12 overs for each side – will have faced some of the hitting he bowled to pretty hostile. His first six overs against the Lions conceded 56, with Ben McKinney tucking in to deliveries that if not entirely poor was definitely not overly dangerous.

After the sixth spell of those overs, the English side's three other bowlers had conceded nearly exactly the same total of runs – 57 – from 15, though the bowler grew a slightly less generous later on, giving up 27 from his remaining six. He secured one dismissal, holding a smart, low-down snare, diving to his right side, to conclude Jacob Bethell's knock for 70, from 80 deliveries.

Jacob Bethell, making up for scoring merely a small score in the first innings, was among three players fifty-scorers in the Lions' top four. McKinney's returns from opener were steadier than those from their number three: he notched 66 in their first innings and went two better in their follow-up, using 61 balls for his 50 runs, with five fours and two sixes, both off Bashir's pitching. Bethell got to 68 before a mishit to Ben Stokes at cover, who took a bending catch at low down.

Jordan Cox showed similar consistency, and followed his first-innings 53 with a further 57, at slightly more than a run a ball. He produced several remarkably handsome hits en route, featuring a straight hit and a hook from successive Brydon Carse balls to achieve his 50 runs.

Following his absence from the initial day of this game with a stomach issue and made only the least significant of efforts to the second, Carse delivered excellently when finally afforded the chance, with McKinney and Cox among his three dismissals.

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