Pope Reinforces Claim to England's Number Three Role with Bold 90 Versus Lions

It's tough to determine how significant of England's warm-up game will prove meaningful when their Ashes series contest begins a short distance away at Perth Stadium on the coming Friday – a short span in space or time but worlds away in significance and atmosphere – but if it achieved only strengthening Pope's self-belief, that by itself has rendered the effort valuable.

England's number three batsman – that much is undoubtedly totally clear – followed his initial innings hundred by adding a further 90 in the second, and the most remarkable was less about the total of scored runs but the way in which they were scored. At times the player appeared dominant, striking a dozen fours and a pair of maximums, hitting the ball sweetly but with aggressive purpose.

This was merely a practice match versus a England Lions side that used a total of 11 bowlers across a match held in amid a small group of people in a public park, but it was nevertheless extremely praiseworthy. To note, the England team, chasing of 202 after the Lions declared their second innings on 251 for six, succeeded by five wickets in hand after Jamie Smith raced the team across the finish line with a flurry of boundaries.

Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, the other two big first-innings' achievers, both fell short in the second innings, while Root added further runs – 31 on this occasion – but was not significantly more assured, before being bemused and subsequently dismissed by Will Jacks. Brook met an identical end soon afterwards.

Shoaib Bashir – who ended the match having bowled 12 overs for each side – will have faced some of the hitting he bowled to pretty hostile. His initial six overs against the Lions conceded 56, with McKinney feasting to bowling that if not completely poor was surely far from threatening.

By the conclusion the sixth spell of those deliveries, the English side's other bowlers had conceded nearly exactly the same total of points – 57 – from 15, though Bashir became a little less giving as time passed, giving up 27 from his final six. He took one wicket, making a smart, low-down grab, falling to his right, to conclude Bethell's knock for 70, facing 80 balls.

Jacob Bethell, making up for achieving only three runs in the initial innings, was among three half-centurions in the Lions' top four. McKinney's scores from opener were more reliable than those of their No 3: he made 66 in their first innings and scored 68 in their second innings, taking 61 balls to reach his half-century, with five and two sixes, each off Bashir's pitching. Jacob Bethell reached 68 prior to a mis-hit to Ben Stokes at cover position, who made a low grab at shin level.

Jordan Cox showed like consistency, and built on his initial innings' 53 with a further 57, at just over a scoring rate of one. He produced several outstandingly elegant shots on the way, such as a straight drive and a pull off successive Brydon Carse deliveries to attain his half century.

Having missed the opening day of this fixture with a stomach issue and provided merely the smallest of efforts to the follow-up, Brydon Carse bowled brilliantly when at last provided the chance, with McKinney and Cox part of his three scalps.

The coverage will update