Play gets underway early once more, featuring an extended morning session of two and a half hours to make up some of the play washed out on the first day. The players are preparing to begin play.
Charity and Command on Display
They do things well in Australia. On the first day of this fifth Test came a fitting tribute to the sufferers and heroes of the Bondi incident, and on the third day the Sydney Cricket Ground was turned into a sea of pink to once again raise funds for the McGrath Foundation.
Out in the middle, however, Australian benevolence was in far shorter supply. Across three sessions their batmen ground England’s bowlers into the dust, dispelling any doubts about their motivation since securing the Ashes and throwing up a few more concerning their defeated rivals.
Faces flush from the ordeal, Ben Stokes and his team walked off at stumps exhausted and overwhelmed. Steve Smith’s 37th Test century, 129 not out from 205 balls, had followed the second half of Travis Head’s sizzling 163 from 166, and with it Australia had achieved 518 for seven from 124 overs. The lead sat at 134 runs overnight and looked an threatening one.
Veteran's Viewpoint
The legendary Neil Harvey, 97, shared his thoughts in a engaging interview.
I've been unimpressed with England. I think the way they handle the batting side of things, they get too careless, nobody seems to want to play a long innings, like a Cowdrey or a Boycott.
It might work against average opponents but when you get a top-tier team like Australia it's a different ballgame. I used to score runs relatively quickly, and everyone gets a lot of pleasure out of it, but when you try to play this Bazball style it reduces the chances of winning an important Test. I'd like to see them pull their hooves in.
A Baptism of Fire
Almost an hour into a somewhat cloudy morning at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Matt Potts came into the England attack from the Randwick End, and immediately began running through his change-ups.
His first ball was sprayed down the leg side and hammered 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 short and straight and smashed past midwicket by Travis Head. His fourth ball was defended with a show of furrowed caution, to jeering shouts from a crowd that had begun to get involved. A tough initiation, Pottsy. And yes, it's always like this around here.
Joining the Pantheon
There was a time, while Steve Smith was at the pinnacle of his batting skill, when “best since Bradman” was used with assurance. The thing about that phrase is that even when the recipient has reigned supreme for years, it gets granted too quickly, given the point of comparison is a career spanning twenty years. Lots of players reach the top for a time, no other has maintained that level.
The combination of those phases, though, took him to a exceptional position on the third day. In the statistics of the game there are achievements, then there are mountaintops. For a long time in Smith's Ashes-centric career there have been two peaks slowly approaching in the mist. Donald Bradman's 5,028 runs against England is one that even Smith will never scale. Jack Hobbs's 3,636 runs against Australia is the one he surpassed on Tuesday.
Preamble: An Anticlimactic Finale
The current Ashes battle, perhaps the most disappointing series in the 144 years since Fred Spofforth raised hell at The Oval, is staggering to a suitable finale. Australia are poised to defeat comprehensively England at Sydney and win the series 4-1, a margin not even the most partisan Pom could argue with.
It's been a triumph of know-how, composure, skill, skill and Travis Head. His bold 123 at Perth hurt England that have yet to recover; four Tests later he is happily compounding their misery. Head's deceptively pitiless 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 certain even before he faced his first ball.
Australia, despite a number of faultlines in their team, have won the series with an ease that is hard to fathom. Maybe that's an Anglocentric view. It's not Australia's fault that England were not competitive – even if, on some level, they probably desired a greater challenge.
The last rites will be administered either this evening or tomorrow. There's a chance of a one-sided finish when England bat, just as there was in the final innings of 2013-14 and 2021-22. Their bodies are tired, their confidence shot, their spirit dented. It's nearly time for everyone to go home.
