Pope Strengthens Claim to England's No 3 Role with Strong 90 Against Lions

It is tough to know how much of England's practice game will prove meaningful when their Ashes campaign kicks off not far at the Perth venue on Friday – a brief gap in geography or duration but ages away in import and environment – but if it achieved solely enhancing Pope's self-belief, that on its own has made the endeavor beneficial.

The English side's number three batsman – this fact is surely totally certain – built on his initial innings century by scoring a further 90 in the follow-up innings, and the most impressive was less about the quantity of runs but the manner in which they were accumulated. On occasion the player looked commanding, hitting a twelve fours and a two of sixes, timing the ball sweetly but with aggressive purpose.

This was just a exhibition game against a Lions side that deployed exactly 11 pitchers across a contest staged in before a few dozen of people in a local ground, but it was still hugely noteworthy. Officially, the England team, needing of 202 after the Lions ended their second innings on 251 for six, triumphed by five wickets in hand after Smith sped the team across the finish line with a stream of fours and sixes.

Crawley and Duckett, the other two big first-innings performers, both were dismissed in the second innings, while Joe Root scored additional points – 31 on this occasion – but was not enormously more convincing, then being puzzled and accordingly out by Jacks. Brook met an similar end soon afterwards.

Bashir – who concluded the game having delivered 12 bowling spells for both teams – will have faced some of the strokes he faced pretty aggressive. His opening six overs against the Lions cost 56, with McKinney taking advantage to deliveries that if not exactly poor was certainly not overly intimidating.

At the end the sixth spell of that period, England's other bowlers had given away nearly exactly the identical amount of runs – 57 – from 15, though Bashir became a little less leaky in time, allowing 27 from his remaining six. He took a single wicket, holding a clever, low catch, diving to his right side, to end Bethell's innings for 70, facing 80 deliveries.

Bethell, redeeming scoring just three runs in the first innings, was one of three players with fifties in the Lions team's leading batsmen. Ben McKinney's performances from opening batsman were more consistent than those of their No 3: he notched 66 in their first innings and improved by two in their follow-up, facing 61 balls over his fifty, with five fours and two six-hit shots, the pair from Bashir's's pitching. Bethell reached 68 prior to a poor shot to Stokes at cover, who held a low catch at low down.

Cox exhibited comparable steadiness, and backed up his first-innings 53 with a further 57, at about a scoring rate of one. He played a few exceptionally beautiful strokes on the way, such as a straight hit and a hook off successive Brydon Carse deliveries to attain his 50 runs.

After missing the opening day of this game with a illness and made only the smallest of efforts to the second day, Brydon Carse bowled excellently when at last given the opportunity, with McKinney and Cox part of his three wickets.

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