The Ashes: Ollie Pope makes warm-up century but Joe Root and Harry Brook miss out

Lilac Hill has a placid surface, far removed from what England can expect to face at Optus Stadium next week.

The value of these preparations will only be revealed in time, but time in the middle is never a bad thing and Pope led the list of England batters who grasped the opportunity.

Duckett should have been caught at first slip by Ben McKinney on six off the impressive Potts. Reprieved, Duckett and opening partner Crawley rattled along at more than six runs an over in the morning session.

Following the slump at the beginning of the afternoon session, Pope and Stokes respected the chance for match practice.

Any suggestion Pope may have been under pressure from Jacob Bethell was ended by Bethell making only two for the Lions on Thursday. A criticism of Pope is that he is often too skittish in Test cricket, but this innings was a calm one – albeit in gentle surroundings.

Stokes has regularly skipped warm-up matches in the past, though he needed this run-out following his spell on the sidelines. He was watchful for his half-century, taking 92 deliveries to reach 50, then opened his shoulders to clobber 34 off his next 19 before being dismissed by Shoaib Bashir.

One other positive for England was the performance of Potts, who is in the Ashes squad despite playing this game for the Lions.

Realistically, Potts is bottom of the pecking order in England’s six Ashes seamers, though his chances of playing a Test have increased with the doubt over Wood.

He was comfortably the best of the seamers on display and bowled better than figures of 3-66 suggest.