Ollie Pope Cements Status to England's Number Three Role with Strong 90 Versus Lions
It is difficult to gauge how significant of the English team's warm-up game will prove important when their Ashes battle starts 10km away at Perth Stadium on Friday – no distance in space or time but ages away in significance and atmosphere – but if it managed only enhancing Ollie Pope's confidence, that on its own has made the exercise beneficial.
England's number three batsman – that much is certainly totally certain – built on his initial innings hundred by adding an additional 90 in the follow-up innings, and the most impressive was less about the number of runs but the manner in which they were accumulated. On occasion the young batsman seemed commanding, smashing a dozen fours and a couple of sixes, timing the ball perfectly but with devilish intent.
It was just a friendly against a England Lions team that deployed fully 11 bowlers throughout a contest played in front of a small group of onlookers in a open field, but it was still hugely praiseworthy. To note, England, set a target of 202 after the Lions ended their follow-on innings on 251 for six, won by a margin of five wickets when Smith hurried the team over the winning target with a flurry of boundaries.
Zak Crawley and Duckett, the other two big first-innings' achievers, both fell short in the second knock, while Root made additional runs – 31 on this instance – but was not significantly more dominant, prior to being bemused and accordingly bowled by Jacks. Brook met an same fate soon afterwards.
Shoaib Bashir – who finished the fixture having bowled 12 bowling spells for either team – will have faced some of the batting he faced rather hostile. His initial six overs versus the Lions cost 56, with McKinney tucking in to pitching that if not entirely poor was definitely not very intimidating.
After the sixth of those deliveries, the English side's other pitchers had allowed roughly the same total of runs – 57 – from 15, though Bashir became a slightly less leaky as time passed, conceding 27 from his remaining six. He took a single wicket, taking a clever, low catch, falling to his right, to conclude Jacob Bethell's knock for 70, off 80 deliveries.
Jacob Bethell, making up for scoring merely three runs in the first innings, was one of three players players with fifties in the Lions' leading batsmen. McKinney's performances from opening batsman were more reliable than those of their No 3: he made 66 in their first innings and improved by two in their second innings, using 61 deliveries over his 50 runs, with five and two six-hit shots, each from Bashir's bowling. Jacob Bethell made 68 then a mis-hit to Stokes at cover position, who took a stooping catch at ankle height.
Jordan Cox exhibited like steadiness, and followed his first-innings 53 with another 57, at slightly more than a run per delivery. There were a few outstandingly elegant strokes on the way, featuring a straight drive and a pull shot off successive Brydon Carse balls to achieve his half century.
Following his absence from the opening day of this game with a stomach upset and provided merely the least significant of efforts to the second, Brydon Carse pitched excellently when at last afforded the opportunity, with McKinney and Cox part of his three dismissals.
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