Pope Reinforces Position to England's No 3 Slot with Impressive 90 Versus Lions

It is hard to know how much of the English team's practice game will be remotely relevant when their Ashes campaign starts not far at Perth Stadium on Friday – a brief gap in geography or duration but worlds away in import and mood – but if it accomplished only strengthening Pope's self-belief, that alone has rendered the effort beneficial.

The English side's No 3 – that much is surely totally established – built on his first-innings century by scoring a further 90 in the second innings, and the most notable was not merely the quantity of scored runs but the way in which they were scored. On occasion the young batsman appeared imperious, hitting a twelve fours and a two of maximums, hitting the ball beautifully but with devilish purpose.

It was just a friendly versus a England Lions team that employed fully 11 bowlers across a contest played in front of a few dozen of people in a local ground, but it was nevertheless very impressive. To note, England, needing of 202 after the Lions declared their second innings on 251 for six, triumphed by five wickets once Smith sped the team across the finish line with a stream of fours and sixes.

Crawley and Duckett, the other two significant first-innings achievers, both fell short in the second innings, while Root made further runs – 31 on this occasion – but was not enormously more assured, prior to being puzzled and subsequently dismissed by Jacks. Brook suffered an identical fate shortly after.

Shoaib Bashir – who finished the game having delivered 12 overs for either team – will have found part of the hitting he bowled to quite challenging. His first six overs against the Lions went for 56, with Ben McKinney taking advantage to deliveries that if not completely wayward was definitely not overly threatening.

After the sixth spell of that period, the English side's three other bowlers had conceded nearly exactly the same number of runs – 57 – from 15, though Bashir turned a somewhat less generous as time passed, allowing 27 from his final six. He took a single wicket, taking a clever, diving catch, falling to his right, to finish Jacob Bethell's batting stint for 70, from 80 balls.

Bethell, compensating for achieving only three runs in the opening knock, was among three players players with fifties in the Lions team's top four. McKinney's returns from opener were more consistent than those of their number three: he made 66 in their first batting effort and improved by two in their second innings, taking 61 balls for his half-century, with five boundaries and two sixes, both off Bashir's's pitching. Bethell got to 68 before a mis-hit to Stokes at cover position, who made a stooping catch at shin level.

Cox displayed like reliability, and followed his first-innings 53 with an additional 57, at about a run a ball. There were a few exceptionally handsome shots on the way, such as a straight hit and a hook from successive Carse deliveries to achieve his fifty.

Following his absence from the first day of this fixture with a illness and contributed only the least significant of contributions to the second, Brydon Carse bowled excellently when at last provided the opportunity, with Ben McKinney and Cox among his three scalps.

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