Pope Cements Claim to England's No 3 Spot with Impressive 90 Against Lions
It is tough to determine how much of England's warm-up match will be remotely meaningful when their Ashes campaign kicks off a short distance away at the Perth venue on the coming Friday – a short span in space or time but worlds away in import and atmosphere – but if it achieved nothing more than enhancing Ollie Pope's self-belief, that by itself has rendered the exercise beneficial.
England's No 3 – this fact is undoubtedly totally established – followed his initial innings century by adding an additional 90 in the second, and the truly remarkable was not so much the number of scored runs but the style in which they were accumulated. On occasion the young batsman seemed commanding, striking a twelve boundaries and a two of sixes, timing the ball perfectly but with devilish determination.
This was only a exhibition game against a England Lions team that used exactly 11 pitchers across a contest played in amid a small group of people in a local ground, but it was nevertheless hugely praiseworthy. Officially, England, set a target of 202 once the Lions closed their second innings on 251 for six, succeeded by a margin of five wickets when Jamie Smith sped the team over the winning target with a series of fours and sixes.
Crawley and Duckett, the other two major first-innings' successes, both failed in the second knock, while Joe Root added several more points – 31 on this time – but was not significantly more convincing, then being puzzled and accordingly dismissed by Jacks. Brook suffered an identical outcome soon afterwards.
Shoaib Bashir – who ended the game having delivered 12 bowling spells for either team – will have encountered some of the batting he bowled to pretty aggressive. His initial six overs against the Lions cost 56, with McKinney tucking in to pitching that if not entirely loose was surely not overly threatening.
By the conclusion the sixth over of those overs, the English side's remaining three bowlers had allowed nearly exactly the equivalent number of points – 57 – from 15, though Bashir grew a little less giving as time passed, allowing 27 from his last six. He took one wicket, making a sharp, diving catch, leaning to his right, to finish Jacob Bethell's innings for 70, facing 80 deliveries.
Bethell, redeeming achieving merely three runs in the initial innings, was one of a trio of half-centurions in the Lions team's leading batsmen. Ben McKinney's scores from opening batsman were steadier than those from their No 3: he made 66 in their first batting effort and improved by two in their second, using 61 deliveries over his fifty, with five and two six-hit shots, both from Bashir's deliveries. Jacob Bethell reached 68 prior to a mis-hit to Stokes at cover, who took a low catch at shin level.
Jordan Cox exhibited similar steadiness, and backed up his first-innings 53 with another 57, at slightly more than a scoring rate of one. He played several remarkably elegant shots during his innings, featuring a straight drive and a pull off back-to-back Brydon Carse deliveries to achieve his half century.
After missing the opening day of this fixture with a stomach upset and contributed merely the most minor of contributions to the follow-up, Carse bowled superbly when eventually afforded the chance, with Ben McKinney and Cox among his three scalps.
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