Pope Strengthens Claim to England Cricket's No 3 Slot with Strong 90 Versus Lions

It's hard to determine how relevant of England's practice match will end up being relevant when their Ashes battle starts a short distance away at the Perth venue on Friday – a short span in space or time but ages away in import and environment – but if it managed solely boosting Pope's confidence, that by itself has rendered the exercise valuable.

England's number three batsman – that much is certainly completely certain – built on his first-innings hundred by scoring a further 90 in the second innings, and what was remarkable was less about the quantity of runs but the manner in which they were made. At times the young batsman appeared commanding, smashing a dozen fours and a couple of sixes, hitting the ball perfectly but with devilish purpose.

This was only a practice match against a Lions team that deployed a total of 11 bowlers during a match held in before a handful of onlookers in a public park, but it was still hugely impressive. For the record, the England team, needing of 202 after the Lions declared their follow-on innings on 251 for six, triumphed by five wickets once Smith raced the team over the finish line with a stream of boundaries.

Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, the two other major first-innings successes, both were dismissed in the second knock, while Joe Root scored further runs – 31 on this instance – but was not significantly more assured, then being bemused and duly out by Will Jacks. Brook suffered an identical end shortly after.

Shoaib Bashir – who finished the match having delivered 12 overs for each side – will have faced some of the batting he confronted pretty challenging. His first six deliveries against the Lions conceded 56, with Ben McKinney feasting to deliveries that if not exactly poor was certainly not overly dangerous.

By the conclusion the sixth spell of those deliveries, England's remaining three bowlers had given away nearly exactly the same amount of runs – 57 – from 15, though Bashir turned a little less leaky later on, allowing 27 from his final six. He claimed one wicket, making a smart, low-down catch, diving to his right, to finish Jacob Bethell's batting stint for 70, from 80 balls.

Jacob Bethell, redeeming achieving just three in the first innings, was one of three players half-centurions in the Lions' leading batsmen. McKinney's returns from opening batsman were more reliable than the scores of their No 3: he notched 66 in their first batting effort and went two better in their second, using 61 deliveries for his 50 runs, with five boundaries and two six-hit shots, both against Bashir's pitching. Bethell got to 68 prior to a poor shot to Stokes at cover, who held a low catch at ankle height.

Cox exhibited comparable reliability, and backed up his first-innings 53 with an additional 57, at slightly more than a run per delivery. He played several remarkably elegant hits during his innings, such as a straight hit and a pull against consecutive Carse deliveries to reach his half century.

After missing the initial day of this fixture with a illness and contributed merely the most minor of efforts to the second day, Carse delivered brilliantly when at last given the chance, with Ben McKinney and Cox part of his three wickets.

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