Under-fire Pom locks in Ashes place with ‘superb’ ton but key cogs fail in warm-up

England’s top three filled their boots as Ollie Pope scored a century, while openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett came close to three figures on day two of their warm up game against the England Lions at Lilac Hill in Perth.

Technical issues left followers confused as online scorecards said Pope was dismissed for 69 despite journalists at the ground, and England Cricket’s official account posting of his century.

Any confusion was alleviated as a photo of the old fashioned scorebook was posted by the England account, showing that Pope did indeed score a hundred and that the team racked up 426 in 85.3 overs in reply to the Lions’ 382.

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The right-hander appeared to be the member of England’s top six on the shakiest ground coming into the tour with Pope stripped of the vice captaincy in favour of Harry Brook and youngster Jacob Bethell regularly wooing selectors and onlookers with his talents.

Pope seems to have locked himself in to bat No.3 at Optus Stadium in a week’s time, however, bringing up his century from only 113 balls, hitting 16 fours and a six before he was bowled by off spinner Shoaib Bashir.

Before Pope came to the crease, Crawley and Duckett combined for an 182-run opening stand.

Duckett was the first to go for 92 from 97 balls, and Crawley fell two runs later for 82 from 101 deliveries.

Key cogs in the middle order Joe Root (1) and Harry Brook (2) missed out, however.

Skipper Ben Stokes followed up his six-wicket haul yesterday with 77 from 109 balls.

Wicketkeeper batter Jamie Smith (13) smashed two sixes in his eight-ball stay at the crease, but like Root and Brook missed out a chance to gain some confidence boosting knock.

For the Lions, Bethell nabbed three wickets as he mopped up the tail, while seamer Matthew Potts got the scalps of Duckett and Root.

Saturday will be the final day of the three-day match and Mark Wood is expected to bowl despite being sent for a precautionary scan on Friday afternoon.

So too is Bryon Carse, who batted but did not bowl yesterday after being ill.

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