Ollie Pope Cements Status to England Cricket's No 3 Role with Bold 90 Versus Lions

It is difficult to know how relevant of England's preparatory game will be remotely relevant when their Ashes battle kicks off a short distance away at Perth Stadium on Friday – a brief gap in space or time but worlds away in significance and environment – but if it achieved solely strengthening Ollie Pope's confidence, that by itself has made the exercise valuable.

England's No 3 – this fact is undoubtedly totally certain – followed his first-innings century by notching an additional 90 in the second, and what was notable was less about the total of scored runs but the style in which they were scored. Periodically the player looked dominant, smashing a dozen boundaries and a couple of maximums, timing the ball sweetly but with fierce determination.

This was merely a friendly versus a England Lions squad that deployed a total of 11 bowlers across a contest played in amid a small group of spectators in a public park, but it was nevertheless hugely noteworthy. Officially, England, set a target of 202 once the Lions declared their follow-on innings on 251 for six, triumphed by five wickets in hand once Jamie Smith raced the team past the finish line with a series of fours and sixes.

Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, the other two big first-innings' achievers, both failed in the second innings, while Root added further runs – 31 on this instance – but was far from more dominant, then being confused and subsequently dismissed by Jacks. Brook experienced an identical end soon afterwards.

Bashir – who finished the fixture having delivered 12 bowling spells for either team – will have encountered part of the strokes he faced pretty challenging. His opening six overs versus the Lions cost 56, with Ben McKinney tucking in to deliveries that if not entirely loose was certainly far from dangerous.

At the end the sixth of those overs, England's other pitchers had allowed almost precisely the identical total of points – 57 – from 15, though Bashir turned a somewhat less generous as time passed, allowing 27 from his last six. He took one dismissal, holding a clever, low-down catch, diving to his right side, to end Bethell's innings for 70, from 80 deliveries.

Jacob Bethell, redeeming scoring just three in the first innings, was among a trio of half-centurions in the Lions team's leading batsmen. McKinney's returns from opening batsman were steadier than the scores of their number three: he notched 66 in their first innings and scored 68 in their second innings, taking 61 deliveries over his fifty, with five and a couple six-hit shots, the pair against Bashir's's bowling. Bethell reached 68 before a poor shot to Stokes at cover position, who took a stooping catch at low down.

Jordan Cox showed comparable reliability, and followed his first-innings 53 with a further 57, at about a run a ball. There were several outstandingly beautiful shots en route, including a straight drive and a pull shot off successive Brydon Carse deliveries to reach his 50 runs.

Following his absence from the initial day of this game with a illness and contributed just the smallest of efforts to the follow-up, Carse pitched superbly when eventually given the chance, with McKinney and Jordan Cox part of his three wickets.

This report may be updated