Ollie Pope Cements Claim to England's Number Three Spot with Bold 90 Versus Lions

It's hard to know how relevant of England's preparatory fixture will be remotely important when their Ashes battle starts a short distance away at Perth Stadium on Friday – a short span in geography or duration but light years away in importance and mood – but if it accomplished solely boosting Ollie Pope's self-belief, that alone has rendered the exercise worthwhile.

England's No 3 – that point is certainly totally established – followed his first-innings ton by adding a further 90 in the second, and the most remarkable was not so much the total of scored runs but the manner in which they were accumulated. Periodically the player looked imperious, hitting a twelve boundaries and a couple of sixes, connecting with the ball beautifully but with fierce intent.

This was merely a friendly versus a Lions team that used fully 11 bowlers throughout a contest staged in amid a small group of onlookers in a public park, but it was nonetheless extremely impressive. For the record, England, set a target of 202 once the Lions declared their second innings on 251 for six, succeeded by a margin of five wickets when Jamie Smith raced the team past the winning target with a series of boundaries.

Crawley and Ben Duckett, the two other significant first-innings' successes, both failed in the second innings, while Joe Root scored additional runs – 31 on this instance – but was far from more convincing, then being puzzled and subsequently out by Jacks. Brook suffered an same outcome soon afterwards.

Shoaib Bashir – who ended the game having bowled 12 bowling spells for either team – will have encountered some of the hitting he confronted pretty hostile. His opening six overs versus the Lions conceded 56, with McKinney tucking in to deliveries that if not entirely wayward was certainly not very intimidating.

After the sixth of those deliveries, England's other pitchers had allowed nearly exactly the equivalent amount of points – 57 – from 15, though the bowler turned a somewhat less generous in time, giving up 27 from his final six. He secured one dismissal, holding a sharp, low-down catch, diving to his right side, to finish Jacob Bethell's innings for 70, facing 80 balls.

Bethell, compensating for achieving merely three runs in the opening knock, was one of a trio of half-centurions in the Lions' top order. McKinney's scores from opening batsman were steadier than the scores of their No 3: he notched 66 in their first batting effort and went two better in their second, taking 61 balls for his half-century, with five fours and two six-hit shots, both off Bashir's's deliveries. Bethell got to 68 then a mis-hit to Ben Stokes at cover position, who held a stooping catch at low down.

Cox exhibited similar steadiness, and built on his first-innings 53 with a further 57, at about a run per delivery. There were some outstandingly beautiful strokes on the way, such as a drive down the ground and a pull from consecutive Brydon Carse balls to reach his fifty.

Following his absence from the opening day of this game with a illness and contributed only the smallest of contributions to the second day, Carse bowled excellently when eventually provided the shot, with McKinney and Cox included in his three dismissals.

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