Ollie Pope Cements Status to England Cricket's Number Three Slot with Impressive 90 Against Lions
It's difficult to gauge how relevant of the English team's preparatory match will end up being important when their Ashes series battle starts not far at Perth Stadium on Friday – no distance in space or time but light years away in import and mood – but if it achieved nothing more than enhancing Ollie Pope's self-belief, that by itself has rendered the effort valuable.
The English side's No 3 – this fact is surely absolutely certain – built on his initial innings ton by notching a further 90 in the second innings, and the truly remarkable was not merely the number of scored runs but the manner in which they were scored. At times the player appeared imperious, smashing a twelve boundaries and a couple of maximums, timing the ball beautifully but with devilish determination.
It was merely a practice match against a England Lions team that deployed a total of 11 bowlers throughout a game held in front of a small group of people in a open field, but it was nonetheless hugely noteworthy. For the record, England, chasing of 202 once the Lions declared their follow-on innings on 251 for six, triumphed by a margin of five wickets after Smith hurried the team past the finish line with a stream of boundaries.
Zak Crawley and Duckett, the two other significant first-innings successes, both failed in the follow-up, while Joe Root added further points – 31 on this time – but was far from more dominant, before being bemused and subsequently bowled by Will Jacks. Harry Brook experienced an identical end a little later.
Shoaib Bashir – who concluded the fixture having delivered 12 bowling spells for both teams – will have encountered part of the strokes he bowled to quite challenging. His first six overs against the Lions conceded 56, with Ben McKinney feasting to bowling that if not entirely poor was certainly not very threatening.
By the conclusion the sixth over of those overs, the English side's three other bowlers had conceded roughly the equivalent total of points – 57 – from 15, though Bashir grew a somewhat less giving in time, allowing 27 from his last six. He took one dismissal, making a smart, low catch, falling to his right, to finish Bethell's batting stint for 70, off 80 balls.
Jacob Bethell, making up for scoring only a small score in the opening knock, was one of three players with fifties in the Lions team's top four. McKinney's returns from opening batsman were more consistent than the scores of their No 3: he made 66 in their initial knock and improved by two in their second, facing 61 balls over his fifty, with five fours and a couple sixes, each off Bashir's's bowling. Jacob Bethell got to 68 then a mishit to Stokes at cover position, who took a bending catch at ankle height.
Cox showed similar steadiness, and backed up his first-innings 53 with another 57, at slightly more than a run a ball. There were some exceptionally elegant strokes during his innings, featuring a drive down the ground and a pull shot from back-to-back Brydon Carse deliveries to reach his 50 runs.
Following his absence from the opening day of this fixture with a illness and contributed just the least significant of inputs to the second day, Carse delivered excellently when eventually given the opportunity, with Ben McKinney and Jordan Cox among his three wickets.
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