Ollie Pope Strengthens Position to England Cricket's No 3 Spot with Strong 90 Against Lions
It's difficult to know how significant of the English team's preparatory fixture will be remotely meaningful when their Ashes campaign starts 10km away at the Perth venue on Friday – a short span in space or time but worlds away in importance and environment – but if it accomplished solely boosting Ollie Pope's confidence, that by itself has rendered the exercise valuable.
The English side's number three batsman – this fact is certainly absolutely clear – built on his first-innings ton by scoring an additional 90 in the follow-up innings, and what was notable was less about the total of scored runs but the style in which they were scored. At times the young batsman looked imperious, smashing a dozen fours and a pair of maximums, timing the ball beautifully but with aggressive intent.
This was only a friendly versus a England Lions team that deployed fully 11 bowlers during a game held in front of a small group of spectators in a open field, but it was nevertheless extremely praiseworthy. Officially, England, set a target of 202 following the Lions closed their follow-on innings on 251 for six, won by five wickets in hand after Smith hurried the team over the finish line with a series of boundaries.
Crawley and Duckett, the remaining significant first-innings successes, both failed in the second knock, while Root added additional points – 31 on this occasion – but was not enormously more convincing, then being puzzled and duly out by Will Jacks. Harry Brook met an identical end a little later.
Shoaib Bashir – who concluded the fixture having bowled 12 bowling spells for both teams – will have found a portion of the batting he confronted pretty challenging. His opening six overs versus the Lions cost 56, with Ben McKinney feasting to deliveries that if not completely wayward was surely not very threatening.
By the conclusion the sixth over of those deliveries, England's remaining three pitchers had given away almost precisely the equivalent total of runs – 57 – from 15, though the bowler grew a somewhat less generous later on, conceding 27 from his final six. He took a single wicket, making a clever, diving grab, leaning to his right side, to conclude Jacob Bethell's innings for 70, from 80 deliveries.
Bethell, redeeming achieving only a small score in the first innings, was among a trio of players with fifties in the Lions team's top four. Ben McKinney's returns from opener were more consistent than those from their number three: he notched 66 in their first batting effort and scored 68 in their second innings, using 61 deliveries for his fifty, with five boundaries and a couple sixes, each from Bashir's bowling. Jacob Bethell made 68 then a poor shot to Stokes at cover, who took a stooping catch at shin level.
Cox showed comparable steadiness, and followed his first-innings 53 with a further 57, at about a run per delivery. He played several outstandingly handsome hits on the way, such as a straight hit and a hook against back-to-back Carse balls to attain his fifty.
Following his absence from the initial day of this game with a stomach issue and made just the smallest of inputs to the follow-up, Brydon Carse pitched brilliantly when finally afforded the chance, with Ben McKinney and Cox part of his three scalps.
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