🔗 Share this article Pope Strengthens Status to England's Number Three Role with Bold 90 Against Lions It is hard to determine how significant of England's practice match will end up being meaningful when their Ashes series battle begins not far at Perth Stadium on Friday – a brief gap in geography or duration but light years away in importance and environment – but if it accomplished solely strengthening Ollie Pope's confidence, that alone has rendered the endeavor beneficial. The English side's No 3 – this fact is surely completely clear – followed his first-innings century by scoring an additional 90 in the second, and what was remarkable was not so much the total of runs but the way in which they were made. At times the 27-year-old seemed commanding, smashing a twelve fours and a couple of sixes, hitting the ball perfectly but with aggressive intent. It was just a practice match versus a Lions team that used fully 11 bowlers throughout a game played in before a few dozen of people in a public park, but it was nonetheless very impressive. To note, England, set a target of 202 following the Lions closed their follow-on innings on 251 for six, triumphed by five wickets after Jamie Smith raced the team past the finish line with a flurry of fours and sixes. Joe Root added a further 31 runs but was not entirely convincing during the English team's practice. Crawley and Ben Duckett, the other two significant first-innings performers, both fell short in the second knock, while Joe Root added several more runs – 31 on this occasion – but was far from more assured, prior to being puzzled and duly out by Jacks. Brook suffered an identical outcome a little later. Shoaib Bashir – who concluded the fixture having delivered 12 bowling spells for either team – will have encountered some of the strokes he faced quite aggressive. His first six overs versus the Lions went for 56, with McKinney taking advantage to pitching that if not exactly wayward was certainly not overly intimidating. By the conclusion the sixth of those overs, England's three other bowlers had conceded roughly the same total of points – 57 – from 15, though the bowler turned a slightly less generous in time, conceding 27 from his final six. He took a single wicket, holding a clever, diving grab, diving to his right, to finish Bethell's innings for 70, off 80 deliveries. Bethell, redeeming managing only a small score in the first innings, was one of three players half-centurions in the Lions team's top order. Ben McKinney's returns from opener were steadier than those from their number three: he notched 66 in their first innings and improved by two in their second, facing 61 deliveries for his half-century, with five fours and two six-hit shots, each from Bashir's bowling. Jacob Bethell made 68 before a poor shot to Ben Stokes at cover, who held a stooping grab at shin level. Jordan Cox exhibited similar steadiness, and followed his initial innings' 53 with a further 57, at just over a run per delivery. He produced several outstandingly beautiful hits en route, including a straight hit and a pull off consecutive Brydon Carse deliveries to attain his fifty. Following his absence from the first day of this game with a stomach upset and contributed merely the most minor of inputs to the second, Carse delivered superbly when eventually afforded the chance, with McKinney and Jordan Cox among his three scalps. The coverage may be updated