Ollie Pope Cements Claim to England Cricket's Number Three Slot with Bold 90 Against Lions
It's tough to gauge how relevant of the English team's practice match will be remotely meaningful when their Ashes battle starts a short distance away at the Perth venue on Friday – a brief gap in space or time but light years away in importance and atmosphere – but if it achieved nothing more than strengthening Ollie Pope's assurance, that on its own has made the effort worthwhile.
The English side's No 3 – this fact is certainly totally established – built on his first-innings ton by scoring another 90 in the second, and what was remarkable was not so much the total of runs but the style in which they were made. On occasion the 27-year-old appeared imperious, striking a twelve boundaries and a couple of maximums, timing the ball sweetly but with aggressive determination.
This was just a exhibition game against a Lions team that deployed a total of 11 pitchers across a contest staged in amid a handful of onlookers in a local ground, but it was still hugely impressive. Officially, England, chasing of 202 following the Lions ended their follow-on innings on 251 for six, won by a margin of five wickets after Smith raced the team past the winning target with a series of boundaries.
Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, the two other significant first-innings' successes, both failed in the second innings, while Joe Root scored additional points – 31 on this time – but was not enormously more dominant, prior to being puzzled and subsequently out by Jacks. Harry Brook experienced an identical fate a little later.
Bashir – who finished the match having bowled 12 overs for each side – will have found some of the batting he confronted rather hostile. His first six overs against the Lions conceded 56, with Ben McKinney feasting to pitching that if not exactly poor was definitely not very threatening.
At the end the sixth spell of those overs, the English side's remaining three bowlers had given away almost precisely the identical total of runs – 57 – from 15, though Bashir turned a somewhat less giving as time passed, conceding 27 from his remaining six. He took a single wicket, taking a clever, low grab, diving to his right side, to end Jacob Bethell's batting stint for 70, from 80 deliveries.
Jacob Bethell, compensating for achieving only a small score in the opening knock, was a member of a trio of fifty-scorers in the Lions' top order. McKinney's returns from opener were more consistent than those of their No 3: he scored 66 in their first innings and went two better in their follow-up, using 61 balls for his fifty, with five fours and two six-hit shots, each off Bashir's's deliveries. Jacob Bethell reached 68 then a poor shot to Stokes at cover, who held a low grab at low down.
Cox showed comparable reliability, and followed his initial innings' 53 with a further 57, at slightly more than a run per delivery. There were some remarkably elegant strokes on the way, featuring a straight drive and a pull shot from back-to-back Brydon Carse balls to achieve his half century.
After missing the initial day of this game with a stomach upset and provided only the least significant of contributions to the second day, Carse pitched excellently when finally afforded the opportunity, with Ben McKinney and Jordan Cox included in his three dismissals.
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