Ollie Pope Cements Position to England Cricket's Number Three Spot with Impressive 90 Against Lions

It's hard to know how significant of England's warm-up fixture will be remotely meaningful when their Ashes campaign kicks off 10km away at Perth Stadium on Friday – no distance in space or time but ages away in significance and atmosphere – but if it managed nothing more than strengthening Pope's assurance, that alone has made the exercise valuable.

The English side's number three batsman – that much is certainly completely certain – built on his first-innings century by scoring another 90 in the second, and the most impressive was not so much the number of runs but the manner in which they were made. Periodically the 27-year-old looked imperious, smashing a dozen boundaries and a pair of maximums, connecting with the ball beautifully but with fierce purpose.

It was only a friendly versus a Lions squad that used exactly 11 bowlers during a contest staged in before a small group of spectators in a public park, but it was nevertheless very impressive. For the record, the England team, needing of 202 following the Lions closed their follow-on innings on 251 for six, won by five wickets in hand when Jamie Smith sped the team across the conclusion with a stream of fours and sixes.

Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, the other two big first-innings' performers, both failed in the follow-up, while Root added additional runs – 31 on this occasion – but was not enormously more assured, before being puzzled and accordingly out by Will Jacks. Brook suffered an similar fate a little later.

Bashir – who ended the match having delivered 12 bowling spells for each side – will have faced a portion of the strokes he faced pretty hostile. His first six deliveries against the Lions conceded 56, with McKinney feasting to deliveries that if not entirely poor was definitely not very threatening.

At the end the sixth spell of that period, England's other pitchers had given away almost precisely the same total of runs – 57 – from 15, though Bashir became a little less leaky in time, giving up 27 from his last six. He secured a single wicket, making a sharp, low catch, leaning to his right, to end Jacob Bethell's knock for 70, from 80 balls.

Jacob Bethell, redeeming scoring merely a small score in the opening knock, was a member of a trio of players with fifties in the Lions' leading batsmen. McKinney's performances from opener were steadier than the scores of their number three: he notched 66 in their initial knock and improved by two in their second innings, using 61 deliveries to reach his 50 runs, with five fours and a couple maximums, both off Bashir's bowling. Jacob Bethell reached 68 before a poor shot to Ben Stokes at cover, who took a low catch at low down.

Cox displayed like steadiness, and backed up his initial innings' 53 with a further 57, at about a run a ball. There were several outstandingly handsome strokes on the way, featuring a straight hit and a pull against consecutive Carse deliveries to reach his 50 runs.

After missing the opening day of this fixture with a illness and provided only the most minor of inputs to the second day, Carse pitched brilliantly when finally provided the chance, with Ben McKinney and Cox among his three wickets.

This report will update