Pope Strengthens Status to England Cricket's No 3 Spot with Strong 90 Versus Lions

It is tough to know how relevant of the English team's warm-up match will prove meaningful when their Ashes campaign starts a short distance away at Perth Stadium on Friday – no distance in geography or duration but worlds away in importance and mood – but if it managed only enhancing Pope's assurance, that on its own has made the exercise worthwhile.

England's No 3 – this fact is undoubtedly totally clear – followed his first-innings century by scoring another 90 in the second innings, and what was impressive was not so much the quantity of runs but the manner in which they were accumulated. Periodically the player seemed imperious, hitting a twelve fours and a couple of sixes, hitting the ball perfectly but with fierce determination.

This was just a friendly versus a Lions team that used fully 11 bowlers during a game staged in front of a few dozen of onlookers in a local ground, but it was nonetheless hugely impressive. For the record, England, needing of 202 following the Lions declared their second innings on 251 for six, won by five wickets in hand when Smith raced the team over the winning target with a stream of fours and sixes.

Crawley and Ben Duckett, the remaining big first-innings successes, both were dismissed in the second knock, while Root scored further runs – 31 on this time – but was not significantly more dominant, before being puzzled and subsequently dismissed by Will Jacks. Harry Brook met an same outcome a little later.

Shoaib Bashir – who finished the game having bowled 12 bowling spells for either team – will have faced part of the strokes he confronted pretty challenging. His initial six deliveries versus the Lions went for 56, with Ben McKinney tucking in to deliveries that if not completely wayward was definitely far from dangerous.

By the conclusion the sixth over of that period, England's three other bowlers had conceded almost precisely the equivalent total of runs – 57 – from 15, though Bashir became a slightly less giving later on, giving up 27 from his last six. He claimed one wicket, taking a clever, low catch, leaning to his right side, to finish Jacob Bethell's batting stint for 70, off 80 balls.

Jacob Bethell, compensating for scoring merely three runs in the first innings, was one of a trio of half-centurions in the Lions' leading batsmen. McKinney's returns from opening batsman were steadier than the scores of their No 3: he scored 66 in their initial knock and went two better in their follow-up, using 61 deliveries to reach his 50 runs, with five and two sixes, each off Bashir's pitching. Jacob Bethell reached 68 then a mis-hit to Stokes at cover, who made a stooping grab at shin level.

Jordan Cox showed similar steadiness, and backed up his first-innings 53 with another 57, at just over a scoring rate of one. He played a few outstandingly elegant strokes on the way, including a straight hit and a pull off back-to-back Carse balls to reach his 50 runs.

Following his absence from the opening day of this match with a stomach upset and made only the least significant of inputs to the follow-up, Brydon Carse delivered excellently when eventually afforded the opportunity, with McKinney and Cox among his three dismissals.

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