Pope Strengthens Claim to England Cricket's No 3 Slot with Impressive 90 Against Lions

It is tough to gauge how much of the English team's practice fixture will be remotely relevant when their Ashes campaign starts a short distance away at the Perth venue on the coming Friday – no distance in geography or duration but worlds away in importance and environment – but if it achieved only strengthening Pope's assurance, that alone has rendered the effort beneficial.

The English side's number three batsman – that much is certainly totally certain – built on his first-innings ton by notching a further 90 in the second innings, and what was remarkable was not so much the number of scored runs but the way in which they were accumulated. On occasion the young batsman seemed dominant, striking a twelve fours and a pair of sixes, connecting with the ball sweetly but with fierce intent.

This was only a exhibition game versus a Lions side that employed fully 11 pitchers during a match staged in front of a handful of spectators in a local ground, but it was still hugely praiseworthy. To note, England, set a target of 202 once the Lions declared their follow-on innings on 251 for six, won by five wickets when Jamie Smith raced the team past the winning target with a flurry of boundaries.

Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, the two other major first-innings achievers, both failed in the second knock, while Root added several more points – 31 on this occasion – but was far from more dominant, before being confused and duly out by Jacks. Brook suffered an same outcome a little later.

Shoaib Bashir – who concluded the match having bowled 12 overs for either team – will have encountered a portion of the strokes he faced quite challenging. His opening six overs versus the Lions cost 56, with McKinney taking advantage to pitching that if not exactly poor was surely not overly intimidating.

By the conclusion the sixth of that period, England's other pitchers had allowed nearly exactly the equivalent amount of runs – 57 – from 15, though Bashir grew a slightly less generous later on, conceding 27 from his remaining six. He took one wicket, taking a smart, low-down catch, falling to his right, to conclude Bethell's batting stint for 70, from 80 balls.

Jacob Bethell, making up for scoring merely three in the initial innings, was among three players with fifties in the Lions' leading batsmen. Ben McKinney's scores from opening batsman were more consistent than the scores of their number three: he made 66 in their initial knock and improved by two in their follow-up, facing 61 balls to reach his fifty, with five boundaries and two sixes, the pair against Bashir's deliveries. Bethell got to 68 prior to a mis-hit to Stokes at cover, who held a stooping catch at low down.

Cox displayed like steadiness, and backed up his initial innings' 53 with an additional 57, at just over a run per delivery. He produced some remarkably elegant strokes en route, including a drive down the ground and a pull from back-to-back Carse deliveries to achieve his fifty.

After missing the opening day of this match with a illness and provided merely the least significant of efforts to the second, Brydon Carse delivered superbly when finally given the opportunity, with Ben McKinney and Cox part of his three scalps.

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