Pope Reinforces Claim to England Cricket's Number Three Slot with Impressive 90 Against Lions

It's tough to determine how much of England's preparatory match will prove relevant when their Ashes contest starts a short distance away at Perth Stadium on the coming Friday – a brief gap in geography or duration but worlds away in significance and environment – but if it managed only strengthening Pope's confidence, that on its own has rendered the exercise worthwhile.

The English side's No 3 – that much is certainly completely clear – followed his first-innings ton by adding another 90 in the follow-up innings, and what was notable was not so much the total of scored runs but the manner in which they were scored. Periodically the player seemed dominant, smashing a dozen fours and a pair of sixes, timing the ball sweetly but with devilish intent.

It was just a practice match against a Lions squad that employed exactly 11 pitchers during a contest staged in amid a few dozen of people in a local ground, but it was nonetheless extremely praiseworthy. For the record, England, needing of 202 once the Lions ended their second innings on 251 for six, succeeded by a margin of five wickets after Smith hurried the team past the finish line with a series of boundaries.

Zak Crawley and Duckett, the two other major first-innings successes, both were dismissed in the follow-up, while Root made several more points – 31 on this instance – but was far from more assured, prior to being bemused and duly dismissed by Jacks. Harry Brook met an identical fate shortly after.

Shoaib Bashir – who concluded the fixture having bowled 12 overs for each side – will have encountered a portion of the strokes he faced quite hostile. His initial six deliveries versus the Lions went for 56, with Ben McKinney taking advantage to deliveries that if not completely poor was definitely not overly dangerous.

After the sixth of those overs, England's remaining three bowlers had given away nearly exactly the equivalent amount of points – 57 – from 15, though Bashir became a little less leaky as time passed, allowing 27 from his remaining six. He took one wicket, making a clever, low snare, falling to his right side, to end Bethell's knock for 70, from 80 balls.

Jacob Bethell, making up for achieving only three in the first innings, was one of three players half-centurions in the Lions team's leading batsmen. Ben McKinney's returns from opener were more consistent than the scores of their No 3: he scored 66 in their first innings and improved by two in their second, taking 61 deliveries over his 50 runs, with five fours and two maximums, the pair from Bashir's's deliveries. Jacob Bethell made 68 before a mishit to Stokes at cover, who held a bending catch at low down.

Cox showed comparable reliability, and followed his initial innings' 53 with another 57, at about a run a ball. There were some remarkably beautiful hits on the way, featuring a straight hit and a hook against successive Brydon Carse deliveries to attain his fifty.

Having missed the opening day of this match with a stomach upset and provided just the least significant of inputs to the second, Carse delivered excellently when finally given the chance, with McKinney and Cox part of his three scalps.

This report will update