Ollie Pope Strengthens Position to England's No 3 Role with Bold 90 Against Lions

It is tough to determine how significant of the English team's warm-up fixture will end up being meaningful when their Ashes series battle kicks off a short distance away at Perth Stadium on the coming Friday – no distance in geography or duration but worlds away in importance and environment – but if it accomplished solely enhancing Ollie Pope's assurance, that alone has rendered the effort beneficial.

England's number three batsman – that point is surely completely clear – built on his first-innings hundred by scoring an additional 90 in the second, and the truly impressive was not merely the total of runs but the way in which they were accumulated. On occasion the player looked dominant, hitting a dozen fours and a couple of sixes, timing the ball sweetly but with fierce purpose.

This was just a friendly against a England Lions side that deployed fully 11 bowlers across a match held in amid a small group of people in a local ground, but it was still very noteworthy. Officially, England, needing of 202 once the Lions closed their second innings on 251 for six, triumphed by five wickets after Jamie Smith hurried the team past the finish line with a series of boundaries.

Crawley and Duckett, the two other significant first-innings' successes, both fell short in the second innings, while Root added several more points – 31 on this occasion – but was not enormously more assured, before being confused and subsequently dismissed by Will Jacks. Brook experienced an identical outcome shortly after.

Bashir – who ended the fixture having delivered 12 overs for both teams – will have encountered some of the hitting he faced pretty aggressive. His opening six overs versus the Lions cost 56, with Ben McKinney feasting to deliveries that if not entirely wayward was definitely not overly threatening.

By the conclusion the sixth of that period, the English side's three other pitchers had conceded roughly the same amount of points – 57 – from 15, though Bashir became a little less leaky as time passed, allowing 27 from his last six. He claimed one wicket, making a clever, low-down snare, diving to his right side, to conclude Jacob Bethell's innings for 70, off 80 balls.

Jacob Bethell, redeeming scoring just a small score in the initial innings, was one of a trio of fifty-scorers in the Lions' leading batsmen. McKinney's scores from opening batsman were steadier than the scores of their No 3: he scored 66 in their initial knock and scored 68 in their follow-up, taking 61 deliveries over his 50 runs, with five boundaries and two sixes, each from Bashir's bowling. Bethell got to 68 then a mis-hit to Stokes at cover, who took a stooping catch at ankle height.

Cox exhibited similar steadiness, and built on his initial innings' 53 with a further 57, at about a scoring rate of one. He produced some remarkably beautiful shots during his innings, such as a straight drive and a hook against back-to-back Carse balls to reach his fifty.

Having missed the opening day of this match with a stomach issue and provided just the smallest of contributions to the second day, Carse delivered brilliantly when finally given the chance, with Ben McKinney and Cox among his three wickets.

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