Pope Cements Position to England's No 3 Role with Strong 90 Against Lions

It is difficult to know how much of the English team's warm-up game will be remotely relevant when their Ashes series contest kicks off 10km away at the Perth venue on the coming Friday – a short span in space or time but ages away in significance and mood – but if it accomplished only boosting Ollie Pope's assurance, that on its own has rendered the exercise worthwhile.

England's No 3 – that point is surely totally established – followed his first-innings ton by scoring another 90 in the second innings, and the truly notable was less about the quantity of runs but the manner in which they were scored. At times the young batsman seemed imperious, striking a twelve boundaries and a couple of maximums, connecting with the ball perfectly but with fierce purpose.

It was only a exhibition game against a England Lions team that employed fully 11 bowlers during a game held in before a handful of people in a public park, but it was nevertheless extremely impressive. To note, England, needing of 202 following the Lions ended their follow-on innings on 251 for six, succeeded by a margin of five wickets after Jamie Smith raced the team across the winning target with a stream of fours and sixes.

Crawley and Duckett, the remaining big first-innings performers, both failed in the second innings, while Joe Root added additional points – 31 on this instance – but was far from more dominant, before being puzzled and duly bowled by Jacks. Harry Brook met an similar fate shortly after.

Shoaib Bashir – who ended the fixture having delivered 12 bowling spells for both teams – will have faced some of the batting he bowled to rather hostile. His initial six deliveries versus the Lions conceded 56, with Ben McKinney taking advantage to pitching that if not completely wayward was surely far from intimidating.

By the conclusion the sixth over of those overs, England's three other bowlers had given away nearly exactly the equivalent total of points – 57 – from 15, though Bashir became a somewhat less leaky in time, conceding 27 from his final six. He secured one dismissal, making a sharp, low-down snare, leaning to his right, to end Bethell's batting stint for 70, facing 80 balls.

Bethell, redeeming scoring only three runs in the opening knock, was among three fifty-scorers in the Lions team's leading batsmen. McKinney's performances from opener were more consistent than those of their number three: he made 66 in their first innings and went two better in their second, taking 61 deliveries over his half-century, with five and a couple six-hit shots, the pair off Bashir's bowling. Jacob Bethell reached 68 then a poor shot to Ben Stokes at cover position, who took a stooping grab at shin level.

Cox displayed like reliability, and backed up his initial innings' 53 with another 57, at just over a run a ball. He played a few exceptionally handsome strokes during his innings, including a drive down the ground and a hook off consecutive Brydon Carse deliveries to achieve his half century.

After missing the opening day of this game with a illness and provided merely the least significant of efforts to the second day, Brydon Carse pitched excellently when finally provided the shot, with McKinney and Jordan Cox included in his three wickets.

This report will update