Pope Reinforces Position to England's No 3 Slot with Impressive 90 Versus Lions

It's tough to determine how significant of England's practice game will end up being meaningful when their Ashes series campaign starts not far at the Perth venue on Friday – a brief gap in space or time but light years away in import and environment – but if it accomplished only enhancing Pope's self-belief, that by itself has made the effort valuable.

England's number three batsman – this fact is surely absolutely established – built on his initial innings century by scoring another 90 in the second innings, and the most impressive was not merely the total of runs but the style in which they were scored. At times the young batsman seemed dominant, hitting a twelve fours and a two of sixes, hitting the ball beautifully but with aggressive intent.

This was just a practice match against a Lions team that used fully 11 bowlers across a match staged in front of a few dozen of onlookers in a public park, but it was nonetheless extremely impressive. Officially, England, set a target of 202 following the Lions ended their follow-on innings on 251 for six, triumphed by a margin of five wickets after Jamie Smith raced the team across the conclusion with a flurry of fours and sixes.

Crawley and Duckett, the two other major first-innings achievers, both failed in the follow-up, while Joe Root made further runs – 31 on this instance – but was not enormously more dominant, then being confused and duly out by Jacks. Brook suffered an identical outcome soon afterwards.

Shoaib Bashir – who concluded the match having bowled 12 bowling spells for both teams – will have found some of the strokes he confronted quite challenging. His opening six overs against the Lions cost 56, with Ben McKinney taking advantage to bowling that if not entirely loose was definitely not overly dangerous.

By the conclusion the sixth spell of those deliveries, England's remaining three pitchers had given away nearly exactly the equivalent amount of points – 57 – from 15, though the bowler turned a somewhat less generous in time, allowing 27 from his final six. He took one dismissal, making a smart, low-down snare, falling to his right, to finish Jacob Bethell's knock for 70, off 80 deliveries.

Bethell, compensating for managing only three runs in the first innings, was a member of three fifty-scorers in the Lions team's top order. Ben McKinney's returns from opener were more consistent than those of their number three: he made 66 in their first batting effort and scored 68 in their follow-up, using 61 balls over his fifty, with five and two sixes, each off Bashir's pitching. Jacob Bethell reached 68 then a poor shot to Ben Stokes at cover, who held a bending grab at shin level.

Cox displayed like steadiness, and backed up his first-innings 53 with an additional 57, at about a run per delivery. He produced several remarkably elegant shots on the way, featuring a drive down the ground and a pull off consecutive Carse balls to attain his half century.

Having missed the first day of this game with a stomach upset and provided merely the least significant of efforts to the second, Carse delivered superbly when at last given the shot, with McKinney and Jordan Cox part of his three dismissals.

This report may be updated