Pope Reinforces Status to England Cricket's No 3 Role with Strong 90 Against Lions

It is difficult to gauge how significant of England's warm-up fixture will prove relevant when their Ashes series campaign kicks off 10km away at the Perth venue on Friday – no distance in space or time but light years away in importance and mood – but if it achieved nothing more than strengthening Ollie Pope's confidence, that on its own has made the exercise beneficial.

The English side's No 3 – that point is certainly completely certain – followed his first-innings century by adding another 90 in the follow-up innings, and the truly impressive was not merely the quantity of runs but the way in which they were scored. Periodically the young batsman seemed commanding, hitting a dozen fours and a two of maximums, hitting the ball sweetly but with fierce determination.

This was merely a friendly versus a England Lions side that used a total of 11 bowlers across a game held in before a small group of spectators in a local ground, but it was nevertheless very praiseworthy. Officially, the England team, set a target of 202 once the Lions declared their follow-on innings on 251 for six, succeeded by a margin of five wickets after Smith sped the team over the winning target with a series of boundaries.

Crawley and Duckett, the other two significant first-innings' successes, both failed in the second innings, while Root scored further runs – 31 on this instance – but was not significantly more dominant, then being bemused and duly out by Jacks. Brook experienced an identical fate shortly after.

Shoaib Bashir – who concluded the match having bowled 12 overs for either team – will have found a portion of the hitting he bowled to quite challenging. His opening six deliveries against the Lions conceded 56, with Ben McKinney tucking in to pitching that if not entirely wayward was definitely far from dangerous.

At the end the sixth over of those overs, the English side's remaining three pitchers had conceded nearly exactly the same number of runs – 57 – from 15, though Bashir grew a somewhat less giving in time, giving up 27 from his last six. He secured a single wicket, making a clever, diving snare, falling to his right, to finish Jacob Bethell's batting stint for 70, from 80 deliveries.

Jacob Bethell, making up for achieving merely a small score in the opening knock, was one of three players with fifties in the Lions' top four. McKinney's scores from opener were more consistent than those from their No 3: he made 66 in their initial knock and improved by two in their second innings, facing 61 deliveries for his fifty, with five fours and two six-hit shots, each off Bashir's bowling. Bethell got to 68 then a poor shot to Ben Stokes at cover, who made a low catch at low down.

Jordan Cox exhibited similar reliability, and backed up his first-innings 53 with another 57, at slightly more than a run a ball. He played a few exceptionally elegant strokes en route, such as a straight drive and a pull against consecutive Carse balls to attain his fifty.

Following his absence from the opening day of this game with a stomach issue and made just the least significant of efforts to the second day, Carse bowled brilliantly when finally provided the shot, with Ben McKinney and Jordan Cox part of his three scalps.

The update could change