Pope Cements Status to England's Number Three Spot with Impressive 90 Against Lions

It is difficult to gauge how much of the English team's practice match will be remotely meaningful when their Ashes series contest kicks off not far at the Perth venue on the coming Friday – no distance in geography or duration but light years away in significance and atmosphere – but if it achieved solely enhancing Pope's self-belief, that alone has made the effort beneficial.

England's No 3 – this fact is certainly completely established – built on his first-innings hundred by scoring an additional 90 in the second, and the truly impressive was not merely the quantity of runs but the style in which they were scored. At times the young batsman seemed imperious, striking a dozen fours and a pair of sixes, connecting with the ball sweetly but with devilish determination.

This was merely a exhibition game versus a England Lions side that employed exactly 11 pitchers across a contest staged in before a handful of spectators in a open field, but it was nonetheless very noteworthy. To note, the England team, set a target of 202 after the Lions closed their second innings on 251 for six, succeeded by five wickets in hand after Jamie Smith hurried the team across the winning target with a flurry of fours and sixes.

Crawley and Duckett, the other two big first-innings' successes, both failed in the second innings, while Root scored additional runs – 31 on this time – but was not significantly more dominant, prior to being puzzled and accordingly dismissed by Will Jacks. Brook suffered an identical outcome a little later.

Shoaib Bashir – who finished the game having bowled 12 bowling spells for each side – will have faced part of the strokes he confronted quite hostile. His opening six deliveries versus the Lions went for 56, with McKinney tucking in to bowling that if not entirely wayward was definitely not very intimidating.

At the end the sixth spell of those overs, England's other bowlers had allowed almost precisely the equivalent amount of points – 57 – from 15, though the bowler became a little less generous as time passed, giving up 27 from his remaining six. He took a single wicket, holding a sharp, low-down grab, diving to his right, to conclude Bethell's batting stint for 70, from 80 balls.

Bethell, making up for achieving merely three runs in the first innings, was among three players half-centurions in the Lions' top four. McKinney's returns from opener were more consistent than those of their number three: he made 66 in their initial knock and improved by two in their follow-up, taking 61 balls to reach his half-century, with five boundaries and two six-hit shots, the pair against Bashir's's pitching. Jacob Bethell got to 68 before a poor shot to Ben Stokes at cover position, who held a low grab at shin level.

Cox exhibited comparable reliability, and followed his first-innings 53 with another 57, at just over a run per delivery. He produced a few remarkably elegant shots on the way, featuring a straight drive and a pull from back-to-back Carse balls to attain his fifty.

Having missed the initial day of this game with a illness and made merely the smallest of contributions to the second, Carse delivered excellently when eventually afforded the chance, with Ben McKinney and Jordan Cox part of his three scalps.

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