Pope Cements Claim to England Cricket's No 3 Role with Strong 90 Versus Lions

It's difficult to gauge how much of the English team's preparatory game will prove meaningful when their Ashes battle starts not far at Perth Stadium on Friday – a brief gap in space or time but worlds away in significance and atmosphere – but if it managed nothing more than boosting Pope's confidence, that by itself has rendered the exercise worthwhile.

England's number three batsman – this fact is certainly absolutely established – built on his first-innings hundred by adding another 90 in the second innings, and the truly remarkable was not merely the quantity of runs but the manner in which they were accumulated. At times the player appeared dominant, striking a twelve boundaries and a pair of maximums, hitting the ball perfectly but with devilish purpose.

This was only a exhibition game against a England Lions team that deployed exactly 11 pitchers during a match staged in amid a handful of people in a open field, but it was still extremely impressive. For the record, the England team, set a target of 202 once the Lions ended their follow-on innings on 251 for six, triumphed by five wickets in hand after Jamie Smith raced the team over the conclusion with a flurry of fours and sixes.

Crawley and Duckett, the other two major first-innings achievers, both failed in the follow-up, while Joe Root made additional points – 31 on this occasion – but was not enormously more convincing, then being puzzled and subsequently dismissed by Will Jacks. Harry Brook suffered an identical fate a little later.

Shoaib Bashir – who ended the match having bowled 12 overs for both teams – will have faced a portion of the hitting he faced pretty hostile. His initial six deliveries versus the Lions conceded 56, with Ben McKinney tucking in to deliveries that if not completely loose was certainly far from intimidating.

At the end the sixth spell of those deliveries, the English side's three other pitchers had allowed almost precisely the equivalent number of points – 57 – from 15, though Bashir became a somewhat less giving as time passed, giving up 27 from his last six. He secured one dismissal, taking a sharp, diving grab, falling to his right side, to finish Bethell's knock for 70, facing 80 balls.

Jacob Bethell, compensating for achieving just a small score in the first innings, was among a trio of players with fifties in the Lions' leading batsmen. Ben McKinney's performances from opening batsman were steadier than the scores of their No 3: he scored 66 in their first innings and improved by two in their second innings, facing 61 deliveries over his fifty, with five and two sixes, each against Bashir's's deliveries. Bethell made 68 then a poor shot to Ben Stokes at cover, who made a stooping catch at shin level.

Cox exhibited similar consistency, and followed his initial innings' 53 with another 57, at about a scoring rate of one. There were several remarkably elegant hits en route, featuring a drive down the ground and a pull shot against back-to-back Brydon Carse balls to achieve his 50 runs.

Having missed the opening day of this game with a stomach upset and provided just the smallest of efforts to the second day, Carse delivered superbly when finally afforded the opportunity, with McKinney and Cox among his three scalps.

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