Ollie Pope Strengthens Status to England Cricket's No 3 Spot with Impressive 90 Against Lions

It is difficult to know how relevant of the English team's practice fixture will be remotely important when their Ashes series contest kicks off 10km away at the Perth venue on the coming Friday – no distance in geography or duration but ages away in importance and environment – but if it accomplished nothing more than strengthening Pope's confidence, that alone has made the effort worthwhile.

England's number three batsman – that much is certainly absolutely clear – built on his initial innings century by adding another 90 in the second, and what was notable was not merely the quantity of scored runs but the manner in which they were scored. Periodically the 27-year-old looked imperious, smashing a twelve fours and a two of maximums, timing the ball beautifully but with fierce purpose.

This was only a friendly against a Lions team that employed exactly 11 bowlers throughout a contest held in amid a handful of onlookers in a public park, but it was still very praiseworthy. Officially, the England team, chasing of 202 once the Lions ended their follow-on innings on 251 for six, succeeded by five wickets in hand when Smith sped the team past the winning target with a flurry of boundaries.

Crawley and Duckett, the other two significant first-innings successes, both were dismissed in the follow-up, while Joe Root added several more points – 31 on this instance – but was not significantly more convincing, before being puzzled and duly out by Will Jacks. Harry Brook met an same fate a little later.

Bashir – who finished the game having delivered 12 overs for both teams – will have faced part of the batting he bowled to rather hostile. His initial six overs against the Lions conceded 56, with Ben McKinney feasting to pitching that if not completely loose was certainly not very dangerous.

By the conclusion the sixth of those deliveries, England's three other pitchers had given away nearly exactly the identical amount of points – 57 – from 15, though Bashir turned a little less giving as time passed, giving up 27 from his remaining six. He took one wicket, taking a clever, low-down snare, leaning to his right side, to finish Jacob Bethell's knock for 70, off 80 deliveries.

Bethell, making up for managing merely a small score in the first innings, was a member of a trio of fifty-scorers in the Lions team's leading batsmen. McKinney's scores from opening batsman were more consistent than those from their number three: he scored 66 in their first innings and improved by two in their second innings, taking 61 balls to reach his fifty, with five boundaries and two sixes, the pair from Bashir's's bowling. Bethell reached 68 then a mis-hit to Stokes at cover, who made a low grab at low down.

Cox displayed like consistency, and built on his first-innings 53 with an additional 57, at just over a run per delivery. There were several outstandingly handsome strokes en route, featuring a straight hit and a pull shot from consecutive Brydon Carse balls to attain his 50 runs.

Having missed the opening day of this fixture with a stomach upset and contributed merely the smallest of contributions to the second, Brydon Carse bowled brilliantly when at last afforded the chance, with McKinney and Cox part of his three scalps.

This report will update