Pope Reinforces Status to England's Number Three Slot with Strong 90 Against Lions

It's difficult to determine how relevant of the English team's warm-up game will be remotely important when their Ashes series contest starts a short distance away at the Perth venue on Friday – a brief gap in geography or duration but light years away in significance and mood – but if it accomplished solely strengthening Pope's self-belief, that by itself has rendered the endeavor worthwhile.

England's No 3 – this fact is certainly completely clear – followed his initial innings century by scoring a further 90 in the follow-up innings, and what was impressive was not merely the number of runs but the style in which they were accumulated. At times the young batsman seemed dominant, striking a dozen boundaries and a couple of maximums, connecting with the ball perfectly but with aggressive intent.

It was only a exhibition game against a Lions team that used fully 11 bowlers across a game staged in front of a handful of people in a open field, but it was nonetheless very impressive. Officially, the England team, set a target of 202 once the Lions closed their second innings on 251 for six, triumphed by five wickets when Jamie Smith sped the team over the finish line with a flurry of boundaries.

Crawley and Ben Duckett, the two other major first-innings successes, both failed in the second knock, while Root added several more points – 31 on this occasion – but was not significantly more assured, before being confused and duly out by Jacks. Harry Brook experienced an similar end shortly after.

Bashir – who concluded the game having bowled 12 bowling spells for both teams – will have found a portion of the batting he bowled to quite hostile. His initial six deliveries against the Lions went for 56, with McKinney feasting to bowling that if not entirely poor was definitely far from threatening.

After the sixth over of that period, England's remaining three bowlers had conceded nearly exactly the same amount of runs – 57 – from 15, though Bashir grew a somewhat less giving as time passed, giving up 27 from his remaining six. He took one dismissal, holding a sharp, low-down catch, diving to his right, to finish Bethell's knock for 70, off 80 deliveries.

Bethell, compensating for scoring only a small score in the initial innings, was one of a trio of half-centurions in the Lions team's top four. Ben McKinney's performances from opener were more reliable than those from their No 3: he scored 66 in their first batting effort and improved by two in their second innings, taking 61 deliveries to reach his fifty, with five and two six-hit shots, the pair from Bashir's bowling. Bethell reached 68 then a mishit to Ben Stokes at cover position, who took a bending grab at shin level.

Cox displayed similar reliability, and backed up his initial innings' 53 with another 57, at slightly more than a scoring rate of one. There were several remarkably beautiful shots on the way, featuring a straight hit and a pull shot from successive Brydon Carse balls to achieve his 50 runs.

After missing the first day of this fixture with a stomach issue and provided only the smallest of inputs to the follow-up, Carse pitched superbly when at last afforded the opportunity, with McKinney and Cox included in his three wickets.

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