It's difficult to know how significant of England's practice match will prove relevant when their Ashes campaign starts 10km away at Perth Stadium on the coming Friday – no distance in geography or duration but light years away in import and mood – but if it achieved only boosting Ollie Pope's assurance, that by itself has made the exercise beneficial.
The English side's number three batsman – this fact is certainly completely established – built on his initial innings century by adding an additional 90 in the second innings, and what was impressive was less about the number of runs but the style in which they were made. On occasion the 27-year-old seemed dominant, striking a twelve fours and a pair of maximums, hitting the ball sweetly but with devilish intent.
It was just a exhibition game versus a Lions team that used exactly 11 pitchers across a game staged in before a small group of spectators in a open field, but it was still very noteworthy. To note, England, needing of 202 once the Lions declared their follow-on innings on 251 for six, won by five wickets after Jamie Smith hurried the team across the winning target with a series of boundaries.
Crawley and Duckett, the other two big first-innings' successes, both failed in the follow-up, while Joe Root made additional runs – 31 on this time – but was not significantly more dominant, then being bemused and duly out by Will Jacks. Brook experienced an identical fate soon afterwards.
Bashir – who concluded the match having delivered 12 overs for each side – will have encountered part of the hitting he bowled to rather hostile. His opening six deliveries against the Lions cost 56, with McKinney taking advantage to pitching that if not exactly wayward was certainly not very dangerous.
At the end the sixth over of those deliveries, England's three other pitchers had allowed roughly the same total of runs – 57 – from 15, though Bashir grew a somewhat less leaky as time passed, conceding 27 from his remaining six. He took a single wicket, taking a sharp, low-down grab, falling to his right, to end Jacob Bethell's knock for 70, facing 80 balls.
Jacob Bethell, making up for scoring merely three in the initial innings, was among three fifty-scorers in the Lions team's top four. Ben McKinney's performances from opening batsman were more reliable than those from their number three: he scored 66 in their first innings and scored 68 in their second, taking 61 balls over his 50 runs, with five and two maximums, both against Bashir's's pitching. Jacob Bethell got to 68 prior to a mis-hit to Ben Stokes at cover, who made a bending grab at shin level.
Jordan Cox exhibited comparable reliability, and backed up his initial innings' 53 with a further 57, at slightly more than a run a ball. He played some exceptionally handsome strokes during his innings, such as a straight hit and a pull off successive Brydon Carse deliveries to achieve his 50 runs.
After missing the first day of this match with a stomach issue and provided only the most minor of inputs to the follow-up, Brydon Carse bowled superbly when eventually provided the shot, with Ben McKinney and Jordan Cox included in his three scalps.
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