Ollie Pope Reinforces Status to England's No 3 Role with Bold 90 Against Lions

It is difficult to gauge how much of England's practice match will be remotely meaningful when their Ashes battle starts not far at the Perth venue on the coming Friday – a short span in geography or duration but worlds away in significance and atmosphere – but if it managed solely strengthening Pope's confidence, that on its own has made the effort beneficial.

The English side's No 3 – that much is surely totally certain – built on his first-innings century by notching an additional 90 in the second, and the most notable was not so much the number of runs but the style in which they were scored. At times the player looked imperious, striking a dozen fours and a couple of sixes, timing the ball perfectly but with devilish determination.

It was only a exhibition game versus a Lions side that used fully 11 bowlers across a contest staged in amid a few dozen of onlookers in a local ground, but it was nonetheless extremely impressive. For the record, the England team, set a target of 202 after the Lions declared their second innings on 251 for six, succeeded by five wickets in hand when Jamie Smith hurried the team past the winning target with a series of fours and sixes.

Crawley and Duckett, the two other big first-innings achievers, both were dismissed in the second knock, while Joe Root added several more points – 31 on this instance – but was far from more convincing, before being bemused and subsequently out by Will Jacks. Harry Brook suffered an same fate soon afterwards.

Shoaib Bashir – who finished the match having bowled 12 bowling spells for both teams – will have encountered part of the strokes he faced rather aggressive. His initial six deliveries versus the Lions went for 56, with Ben McKinney tucking in to pitching that if not completely poor was surely far from threatening.

After the sixth spell of those deliveries, England's other bowlers had conceded almost precisely the same amount of runs – 57 – from 15, though the bowler grew a slightly less leaky later on, allowing 27 from his final six. He claimed one dismissal, taking a sharp, low catch, leaning to his right, to conclude Jacob Bethell's innings for 70, off 80 deliveries.

Bethell, compensating for achieving just a small score in the initial innings, was among three players players with fifties in the Lions team's top four. Ben McKinney's performances from opening batsman were more reliable than the scores of their No 3: he notched 66 in their first batting effort and scored 68 in their follow-up, facing 61 balls to reach his half-century, with five fours and two six-hit shots, each from Bashir's deliveries. Jacob Bethell made 68 before a poor shot to Stokes at cover, who took a bending grab at low down.

Jordan Cox exhibited comparable reliability, and followed his initial innings' 53 with a further 57, at about a scoring rate of one. He produced several outstandingly elegant shots during his innings, including a straight hit and a pull against successive Brydon Carse balls to achieve his fifty.

Following his absence from the first day of this fixture with a stomach issue and made only the least significant of efforts to the second, Carse pitched brilliantly when eventually given the shot, with Ben McKinney and Jordan Cox among his three wickets.

This report may be updated