Ollie Pope Strengthens Position to England Cricket's No 3 Slot with Bold 90 Against Lions

It's hard to determine how much of the English team's preparatory game will prove relevant when their Ashes series contest starts 10km away at Perth Stadium on the coming Friday – no distance in geography or duration but worlds away in significance and mood – but if it achieved solely enhancing Pope's self-belief, that on its own has made the endeavor worthwhile.

The English side's No 3 – that much is certainly completely established – followed his first-innings hundred by scoring an additional 90 in the second, and the most impressive was not so much the total of runs but the way in which they were scored. At times the 27-year-old looked dominant, striking a twelve boundaries and a two of sixes, connecting with the ball beautifully but with devilish purpose.

It was just a practice match versus a England Lions squad that deployed a total of 11 bowlers during a contest played in before a handful of spectators in a public park, but it was still extremely praiseworthy. For the record, England, needing of 202 after the Lions ended their second innings on 251 for six, triumphed by five wickets when Smith sped the team over the finish line with a flurry of boundaries.

Crawley and Ben Duckett, the two other significant first-innings' achievers, both failed in the follow-up, while Joe Root added additional runs – 31 on this instance – but was not significantly more assured, prior to being puzzled and subsequently bowled by Will Jacks. Brook suffered an identical end shortly after.

Shoaib Bashir – who concluded the match having delivered 12 bowling spells for each side – will have found part of the hitting he faced quite aggressive. His initial six deliveries against the Lions went for 56, with Ben McKinney feasting to pitching that if not exactly wayward was surely not overly dangerous.

At the end the sixth of that period, England's three other pitchers had conceded almost precisely the same total of runs – 57 – from 15, though Bashir became a slightly less leaky later on, allowing 27 from his remaining six. He took one dismissal, holding a clever, diving catch, falling to his right side, to end Bethell's innings for 70, from 80 balls.

Bethell, making up for managing merely three in the opening knock, was a member of a trio of fifty-scorers in the Lions' top four. McKinney's returns from opening batsman were more reliable than those from their No 3: he made 66 in their first innings and went two better in their second innings, using 61 deliveries for his fifty, with five boundaries and two six-hit shots, both from Bashir's's bowling. Jacob Bethell got to 68 before a mis-hit to Ben Stokes at cover, who held a bending catch at shin level.

Jordan Cox displayed similar reliability, and backed up his initial innings' 53 with another 57, at about a scoring rate of one. He played a few exceptionally elegant hits en route, featuring a drive down the ground and a pull from back-to-back Brydon Carse balls to attain his fifty.

After missing the opening day of this match with a stomach issue and made merely the smallest of inputs to the second, Brydon Carse delivered superbly when finally given the opportunity, with Ben McKinney and Cox included in his three dismissals.

The update will update