Ollie Pope Cements Position to England's Number Three Role with Impressive 90 Against Lions

It is difficult to gauge how much of England's warm-up match will end up being important when their Ashes series battle kicks off a short distance away at Perth Stadium on the coming Friday – no distance in geography or duration but light years away in significance and environment – but if it managed solely enhancing Ollie Pope's self-belief, that by itself has made the effort valuable.

The English side's number three batsman – that much is certainly completely certain – followed his first-innings hundred by scoring a further 90 in the second, and the truly impressive was not so much the number of scored runs but the way in which they were made. Periodically the player appeared commanding, striking a twelve boundaries and a two of maximums, connecting with the ball sweetly but with fierce intent.

It was only a practice match against a Lions side that deployed fully 11 pitchers during a match staged in amid a few dozen of people in a public park, but it was nevertheless hugely impressive. Officially, England, needing of 202 once the Lions ended their second innings on 251 for six, won by a margin of five wickets when Smith hurried the team past the winning target with a flurry of fours and sixes.

Crawley and Ben Duckett, the other two big first-innings' achievers, both fell short in the second knock, while Joe Root added additional runs – 31 on this time – but was not enormously more dominant, then being puzzled and duly bowled by Will Jacks. Brook suffered an same outcome a little later.

Bashir – who ended the game having bowled 12 overs for either team – will have encountered a portion of the hitting he bowled to pretty aggressive. His opening six overs against the Lions conceded 56, with McKinney taking advantage to deliveries that if not completely wayward was surely not very intimidating.

By the conclusion the sixth spell of those deliveries, England's other bowlers had allowed roughly the identical amount of runs – 57 – from 15, though Bashir became a somewhat less generous in time, conceding 27 from his final six. He claimed one wicket, taking a clever, diving grab, leaning to his right side, to finish Bethell's innings for 70, from 80 deliveries.

Jacob Bethell, redeeming achieving just three runs in the initial innings, was among a trio of players with fifties in the Lions' top four. Ben McKinney's scores from opener were more reliable than those of their No 3: he made 66 in their first batting effort and scored 68 in their second, taking 61 balls to reach his 50 runs, with five and two maximums, the pair against Bashir's's bowling. Bethell reached 68 before a mis-hit to Stokes at cover position, who took a low catch at shin level.

Cox displayed like reliability, and backed up his initial innings' 53 with an additional 57, at slightly more than a run a ball. He produced a few remarkably handsome hits during his innings, including a straight hit and a pull shot against consecutive Carse deliveries to reach his fifty.

After missing the initial day of this fixture with a stomach upset and contributed just the most minor of efforts to the second day, Carse pitched brilliantly when finally provided the opportunity, with Ben McKinney and Jordan Cox part of his three scalps.

This report may be updated