Play gets underway early once more, featuring an extended morning session of two and a half hours to compensate for some of the overs lost on the first day. The players are preparing to step onto the ground.
Charity and Command on Display
Australia knows how to host an event. This fifth Test commenced with a appropriate remembrance to the victims and first responders of the Bondi atrocity, and on the third day the Sydney Cricket Ground was transformed into a wave of pink to once again raise funds for the McGrath Foundation.
On the field of play, though, Australian generosity was in far shorter supply. Across three sessions their batters wore down the English attack, answering any questions about their drive since securing the Ashes and throwing up a few more about their vanquished foes.
Faces flush from the ordeal, Ben Stokes and his team walked off at stumps battle-weary. Steve Smith’s century number thirty-seven, 129 not out from 205 balls, had succeeded the latter part of Travis Head’s blistering 163 from 166, and with it Australia had reached 518 for seven from 124 overs. The lead stood at 134 runs overnight and looked an ominous one.
Legendary Critique
The famed Neil Harvey, 97, offered his perspective in a engaging interview.
I've been let down by England. I think the way they handle the batting side of things, they get too careless, nobody seems to want to build an innings, like a Cowdrey or a Boycott.
It might work against ordinary teams but when you get a class side like Australia it's a whole new challenge. I used to score runs quite rapidly, and everyone gets a lot of pleasure out of it, but when you try to play this Bazball style it lessens the probability of winning an important Test. I'd like to see them pull their hooves in.
A Tough Introduction
Shortly after the start of a gloomy morning at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Matt Potts entered the England attack from the Randwick End, and immediately began running through his variations.
His first ball was full and wide and smashed through cover by Travis Head. His second ball was both back of a length and outside off and cut over gully by Travis Head. His third ball was on a good length and driven past midwicket by Travis Head. His fourth ball was blocked with a show of studious defense, to loud, mocking cheers from a crowd that had begun to tuck into the day. A tough initiation, Pottsy. And yes, it's always like this around here.
Scaling the Ashes Mountain
There was a time, while Steve Smith was at the pinnacle of his batting mastery, when “best since Bradman” was used with assurance. The thing about that line is that even when the recipient has excelled for years, it gets granted too quickly, given the point of comparison is a career lasting two decades. Lots of players hit their peak for a time, no other has stayed as long.
The amalgamation of those phases, though, propelled him into a rare position on the third day. In the statistics of the game there are milestones, then there are mountaintops. For a long time in Smith's Ashes-heavy career there have been two peaks drawing gradually closer in the mist. Donald Bradman's 5,028 runs against England is one that even Smith will never climb. Jack Hobbs's 3,636 runs against Australia is the one he overtook on Tuesday.
Preamble: A One-Sided Conclusion
The current Ashes battle, perhaps the most anticlimactic series in the 144 years since Fred Spofforth caused havoc at The Oval, is heading for a appropriate end. Australia are on course to overwhelm England at Sydney and win the series 4-1, a result not even the most biased Pom could contest.
It's been a triumph of know-how, maturity, discipline, skill and Travis Head. His daring 123 at Perth exposed English frailties that have yet to heal; four Tests later he is cheerily grinding salt into them. Head's surprisingly ruthless 163 helped Australia to 518 for 7 at the end of day three, a lead of 134. Steve Smith will continue on 129 after making a century that looked unavoidable even before he faced his first ball.
Australia, despite a number of faultlines in their team, have won the series with an comfort that is hard to understand. Maybe that's an Pommy outlook. It's not Australia's fault that England did not show up – even if, on some level, they probably craved a greater challenge.
The last rites will be administered either this evening or tomorrow. There's a chance of a total collapse when England bat, just as there was in the last knock of 2013-14 and 2021-22. Their bodies are tired, their confidence shattered, their spirit dented. It's nearly time for everyone to go home.
