Pope Reinforces Status to England Cricket's No 3 Slot with Impressive 90 Against Lions

It's hard to gauge how much of England's preparatory match will prove important when their Ashes campaign starts 10km away at the Perth venue on the coming Friday – no distance in space or time but ages away in significance and environment – but if it achieved nothing more than boosting Pope's assurance, that alone has made the exercise valuable.

England's No 3 – that point is undoubtedly absolutely clear – followed his first-innings hundred by adding an additional 90 in the second innings, and what was notable was not merely the quantity of runs but the style in which they were made. On occasion the young batsman looked dominant, smashing a dozen boundaries and a couple of maximums, hitting the ball sweetly but with aggressive purpose.

This was only a exhibition game against a Lions team that employed exactly 11 pitchers throughout a game held in amid a small group of onlookers in a public park, but it was nevertheless hugely praiseworthy. For the record, England, set a target of 202 following the Lions closed their follow-on innings on 251 for six, succeeded by a margin of five wickets after Smith sped the team past the winning target with a series of boundaries.

Crawley and Duckett, the two other significant first-innings successes, both failed in the second knock, while Root made further runs – 31 on this instance – but was not significantly more assured, before being bemused and duly out by Jacks. Brook experienced an identical fate a little later.

Shoaib Bashir – who finished the game having delivered 12 overs for each side – will have encountered a portion of the batting he faced pretty hostile. His first six overs versus the Lions cost 56, with Ben McKinney tucking in to pitching that if not completely poor was surely not very threatening.

After the sixth spell of those deliveries, the English side's three other bowlers had given away nearly exactly the identical total of runs – 57 – from 15, though the bowler grew a little less leaky in time, conceding 27 from his last six. He took one wicket, holding a clever, low-down catch, falling to his right, to end Jacob Bethell's innings for 70, from 80 balls.

Jacob Bethell, compensating for managing merely three in the opening knock, was a member of three players half-centurions in the Lions' top four. McKinney's performances from opener were more reliable than the scores of their No 3: he scored 66 in their first innings and scored 68 in their second innings, facing 61 deliveries for his 50 runs, with five boundaries and two maximums, each from Bashir's's bowling. Jacob Bethell reached 68 then a mis-hit to Ben Stokes at cover position, who took a bending catch at ankle height.

Cox showed like reliability, and followed his first-innings 53 with an additional 57, at about a run per delivery. He played some exceptionally beautiful shots on the way, such as a straight drive and a pull shot off back-to-back Brydon Carse balls to attain his half century.

After missing the first day of this game with a illness and provided just the most minor of inputs to the second, Carse bowled excellently when eventually afforded the opportunity, with Ben McKinney and Jordan Cox among his three scalps.

This report may be updated