Ollie Pope Reinforces Claim to England Cricket's Number Three Slot with Bold 90 Against Lions
It's hard to gauge how significant of England's practice fixture will prove important when their Ashes battle kicks off a short distance away at the Perth venue on the coming Friday – no distance in geography or duration but worlds away in importance and atmosphere – but if it managed solely enhancing Pope's self-belief, that by itself has made the effort worthwhile.
The English side's No 3 – that much is surely totally established – followed his first-innings ton by adding a further 90 in the second innings, and the most remarkable was not so much the number of runs but the way in which they were made. On occasion the player looked imperious, smashing a dozen boundaries and a pair of sixes, hitting the ball beautifully but with aggressive intent.
It was just a exhibition game against a England Lions team that employed a total of 11 bowlers throughout a match staged in front of a small group of onlookers in a public park, but it was nonetheless hugely impressive. To note, the England team, set a target of 202 following the Lions closed their second innings on 251 for six, succeeded by five wickets in hand after Smith hurried the team over the finish line with a stream of fours and sixes.
Crawley and Ben Duckett, the other two significant first-innings' successes, both fell short in the second knock, while Root added additional points – 31 on this occasion – but was not significantly more dominant, before being bemused and accordingly dismissed by Will Jacks. Brook suffered an identical fate a little later.
Shoaib Bashir – who finished the match having delivered 12 overs for either team – will have found a portion of the hitting he faced pretty hostile. His first six overs against the Lions cost 56, with McKinney taking advantage to pitching that if not entirely loose was definitely far from intimidating.
By the conclusion the sixth of those overs, England's remaining three pitchers had given away almost precisely the equivalent number of points – 57 – from 15, though Bashir turned a slightly less leaky later on, conceding 27 from his final six. He secured one wicket, making a sharp, diving grab, falling to his right side, to conclude Jacob Bethell's innings for 70, facing 80 deliveries.
Bethell, redeeming achieving just three runs in the initial innings, was among a trio of half-centurions in the Lions' top four. Ben McKinney's performances from opening batsman were more reliable than those from their number three: he notched 66 in their first innings and went two better in their second, facing 61 balls for his half-century, with five fours and two sixes, the pair from Bashir's's bowling. Bethell made 68 then a poor shot to Ben Stokes at cover position, who made a bending grab at ankle height.
Cox displayed comparable reliability, and built on his initial innings' 53 with another 57, at just over a run a ball. There were some outstandingly beautiful strokes during his innings, including a straight drive and a pull shot against back-to-back Brydon Carse deliveries to achieve his fifty.
Having missed the first day of this game with a illness and made merely the smallest of contributions to the second day, Brydon Carse pitched excellently when at last afforded the opportunity, with McKinney and Jordan Cox among his three wickets.
This report may be updated
