It is hard to know how much of England’s warm-up game will be remotely relevant when their Ashes campaign begins 10km away at Perth Stadium on Friday. It is no distance in space or time but light years away in import and atmosphere and if it achieved nothing more than boosting Ollie Pope’s confidence, that alone has made the exercise worthwhile.
England’s No 3 – his place in the first XI is now surely certain – followed his first-innings century against the Lions by scoring another 90 in the second. What was impressive was not so much the number of runs but the manner in which they were scored. At times the 27-year-old looked imperious, hitting a dozen fours and a pair of sixes, timing the ball sweetly but with devilish intent.
