Pope Cements Position to England's No 3 Spot with Strong 90 Against Lions

It is tough to know how significant of the English team's preparatory fixture will be remotely meaningful when their Ashes campaign begins a short distance away at the Perth venue on the coming Friday – a brief gap in geography or duration but worlds away in importance and atmosphere – but if it managed nothing more than boosting Ollie Pope's self-belief, that by itself has made the effort worthwhile.

England's No 3 – this fact is certainly completely clear – followed his first-innings ton by scoring a further 90 in the second, and the most remarkable was not so much the total of runs but the way in which they were scored. Periodically the young batsman appeared imperious, hitting a dozen boundaries and a pair of sixes, connecting with the ball sweetly but with fierce purpose.

This was merely a friendly against a England Lions team that used a total of 11 pitchers throughout a game held in front of a few dozen of people in a local ground, but it was still extremely impressive. To note, the England team, set a target of 202 following the Lions declared their second innings on 251 for six, triumphed by a margin of five wickets after Jamie Smith raced the team past the winning target with a flurry of boundaries.

Crawley and Duckett, the two other major first-innings achievers, both failed in the second innings, while Root made further points – 31 on this instance – but was not enormously more dominant, prior to being bemused and duly dismissed by Jacks. Harry Brook met an similar outcome a little later.

Bashir – who finished the game having bowled 12 bowling spells for each side – will have found some of the hitting he bowled to pretty aggressive. His first six overs against the Lions went for 56, with Ben McKinney tucking in to deliveries that if not completely loose was certainly far from threatening.

After the sixth spell of those overs, the English side's three other pitchers had given away roughly the identical number of runs – 57 – from 15, though Bashir turned a little less leaky as time passed, conceding 27 from his last six. He claimed a single wicket, holding a sharp, diving snare, leaning to his right side, to end Jacob Bethell's knock for 70, from 80 balls.

Jacob Bethell, redeeming achieving only three runs in the initial innings, was one of a trio of half-centurions in the Lions team's leading batsmen. Ben McKinney's performances from opener were steadier than those from their number three: he made 66 in their first batting effort and went two better in their follow-up, taking 61 deliveries for his 50 runs, with five and a couple maximums, the pair off Bashir's's deliveries. Jacob Bethell reached 68 before a mishit to Ben Stokes at cover position, who took a stooping grab at low down.

Cox exhibited comparable reliability, and built on his first-innings 53 with another 57, at about a run a ball. There were some exceptionally beautiful hits en route, featuring a straight drive and a pull shot off consecutive Carse balls to achieve his fifty.

Having missed the opening day of this fixture with a illness and contributed merely the most minor of contributions to the follow-up, Carse delivered superbly when finally afforded the chance, with Ben McKinney and Cox part of his three wickets.

This report will update