🔗 Share this article Ollie Pope Strengthens Claim to England Cricket's Number Three Role with Bold 90 Against Lions It is difficult to gauge how much of the English team's warm-up fixture will prove relevant when their Ashes series contest kicks off not far at Perth Stadium on the coming Friday – no distance in geography or duration but worlds away in significance and atmosphere – but if it achieved only enhancing Ollie Pope's self-belief, that by itself has made the endeavor valuable. The English side's No 3 – that point is undoubtedly absolutely certain – followed his initial innings ton by adding a further 90 in the follow-up innings, and the truly notable was less about the number of runs but the way in which they were scored. At times the 27-year-old looked imperious, smashing a dozen boundaries and a pair of maximums, timing the ball beautifully but with devilish intent. This was just a friendly against a England Lions team that employed a total of 11 pitchers across a contest played in front of a small group of spectators in a public park, but it was still very impressive. Officially, the England team, set a target of 202 following the Lions closed their second innings on 251 for six, won by a margin of five wickets once Jamie Smith hurried the team over the conclusion with a series of boundaries. Joe Root clocked up a further 31 runs but was less than convincing during England's preparatory. Crawley and Duckett, the remaining significant first-innings successes, both were dismissed in the second innings, while Root added several more runs – 31 on this instance – but was not enormously more dominant, prior to being puzzled and duly dismissed by Will Jacks. Brook experienced an identical outcome shortly after. Bashir – who ended the fixture having delivered 12 overs for either team – will have found part of the strokes he faced quite hostile. His first six deliveries versus the Lions conceded 56, with Ben McKinney tucking in to deliveries that if not completely poor was definitely far from threatening. At the end the sixth spell of those overs, the English side's three other pitchers had conceded almost precisely the equivalent amount of points – 57 – from 15, though Bashir turned a little less generous later on, giving up 27 from his last six. He took one wicket, making a sharp, low grab, leaning to his right side, to finish Bethell's knock for 70, facing 80 balls. Jacob Bethell, making up for managing merely a small score in the first innings, was a member of a trio of players with fifties in the Lions' top four. Ben McKinney's performances from opener were steadier than those of their No 3: he notched 66 in their initial knock and scored 68 in their follow-up, facing 61 balls to reach his half-century, with five boundaries and two maximums, the pair off Bashir's bowling. Bethell reached 68 prior to a mishit to Stokes at cover, who held a low grab at low down. Cox displayed comparable steadiness, and followed his initial innings' 53 with a further 57, at slightly more than a run per delivery. He produced several remarkably handsome hits during his innings, featuring a drive down the ground and a hook off consecutive Brydon Carse deliveries to attain his fifty. Having missed the first day of this match with a stomach upset and contributed just the most minor of contributions to the follow-up, Carse pitched brilliantly when eventually provided the chance, with McKinney and Cox part of his three dismissals. The coverage will update