Ollie Pope Strengthens Claim to England's No 3 Spot with Bold 90 Versus Lions

It's tough to determine how much of the English team's warm-up fixture will be remotely important when their Ashes contest kicks off not far at the Perth venue on the coming Friday – no distance in geography or duration but worlds away in import and atmosphere – but if it managed only boosting Ollie Pope's self-belief, that alone has rendered the endeavor valuable.

England's number three batsman – this fact is surely totally certain – built on his first-innings ton by adding a further 90 in the second innings, and the most notable was not so much the quantity of scored runs but the style in which they were accumulated. At times the player appeared commanding, striking a dozen boundaries and a two of maximums, connecting with the ball perfectly but with devilish determination.

This was just a exhibition game against a Lions team that deployed exactly 11 bowlers across a match played in front of a small group of onlookers in a open field, but it was nevertheless extremely praiseworthy. To note, England, chasing of 202 after the Lions ended their follow-on innings on 251 for six, won by a margin of five wickets once Smith sped the team past the conclusion with a flurry of boundaries.

Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, the other two major first-innings' performers, both fell short in the second knock, while Root made additional runs – 31 on this instance – but was far from more convincing, prior to being puzzled and duly bowled by Will Jacks. Harry Brook experienced an identical end a little later.

Shoaib Bashir – who finished the match having delivered 12 overs for either team – will have faced part of the batting he confronted pretty hostile. His initial six overs versus the Lions cost 56, with Ben McKinney tucking in to bowling that if not entirely loose was certainly far from dangerous.

At the end the sixth of those overs, the English side's three other pitchers had given away nearly exactly the equivalent number of points – 57 – from 15, though Bashir grew a slightly less leaky in time, allowing 27 from his last six. He took a single wicket, holding a clever, low-down snare, diving to his right side, to conclude Bethell's knock for 70, from 80 balls.

Jacob Bethell, redeeming achieving just three in the opening knock, was among three players half-centurions in the Lions team's top order. Ben McKinney's performances from opener were more consistent than the scores of their number three: he notched 66 in their initial knock and scored 68 in their second innings, using 61 balls to reach his fifty, with five fours and two maximums, the pair off Bashir's bowling. Jacob Bethell made 68 then a poor shot to Stokes at cover, who took a bending catch at shin level.

Jordan Cox exhibited like consistency, and built on his initial innings' 53 with another 57, at just over a scoring rate of one. There were a few outstandingly elegant hits during his innings, including a straight hit and a pull shot against successive Carse deliveries to attain his fifty.

Having missed the first day of this game with a illness and contributed only the least significant of contributions to the second, Brydon Carse delivered excellently when eventually afforded the chance, with McKinney and Cox included in his three wickets.

The update could change