Pope Strengthens Position to England's Number Three Spot with Bold 90 Versus Lions

It's difficult to determine how much of England's preparatory fixture will be remotely meaningful when their Ashes series campaign starts 10km away at the Perth venue on Friday – a brief gap in space or time but light years away in importance and atmosphere – but if it achieved solely enhancing Pope's assurance, that on its own has rendered the exercise worthwhile.

The English side's No 3 – this fact is undoubtedly totally clear – followed his first-innings century by scoring a further 90 in the follow-up innings, and what was remarkable was not merely the quantity of scored runs but the way in which they were made. At times the player appeared commanding, smashing a dozen boundaries and a pair of maximums, timing the ball beautifully but with fierce purpose.

This was only a friendly versus a England Lions team that used fully 11 bowlers throughout a contest staged in front of a handful of spectators in a public park, but it was still very praiseworthy. For the record, the England team, set a target of 202 following the Lions ended their second innings on 251 for six, won by five wickets in hand after Jamie Smith sped the team across the conclusion with a flurry of fours and sixes.

Crawley and Ben Duckett, the remaining big first-innings performers, both were dismissed in the second innings, while Joe Root made additional runs – 31 on this instance – but was far from more convincing, prior to being confused and accordingly out by Will Jacks. Brook met an similar end a little later.

Bashir – who concluded the match having delivered 12 overs for both teams – will have faced some of the strokes he faced pretty aggressive. His first six overs against the Lions cost 56, with Ben McKinney feasting to bowling that if not exactly poor was surely far from threatening.

At the end the sixth spell of those overs, the English side's remaining three bowlers had given away almost precisely the identical amount of points – 57 – from 15, though Bashir became a slightly less giving later on, giving up 27 from his final six. He secured a single wicket, making a smart, low-down catch, leaning to his right, to finish Bethell's knock for 70, off 80 balls.

Bethell, redeeming managing only three in the first innings, was among three players with fifties in the Lions team's top four. Ben McKinney's performances from opening batsman were more consistent than those of their number three: he scored 66 in their first innings and improved by two in their follow-up, using 61 deliveries to reach his fifty, with five and a couple six-hit shots, both against Bashir's pitching. Bethell made 68 prior to a poor shot to Stokes at cover position, who made a low catch at low down.

Jordan Cox showed like consistency, and backed up his first-innings 53 with another 57, at slightly more than a scoring rate of one. He played some remarkably beautiful hits en route, including a straight hit and a hook off successive Brydon Carse balls to achieve his 50 runs.

After missing the first day of this match with a stomach upset and contributed only the least significant of inputs to the second, Brydon Carse delivered excellently when eventually given the chance, with McKinney and Cox among his three dismissals.

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