It’s another early start today, as a lengthy two-and-a-half-hour morning stint to make up some of the play washed out on the first day. The athletes are getting ready to step onto the ground.
Charity and Command on Display
They do things well in Australia. This fifth Test commenced with a moving homage to the sufferers and heroes of the Bondi atrocity, and on the third day the Sydney Cricket Ground was became a sea of pink to once again collect money for the McGrath Foundation.
Out in the middle, however, Australian generosity was in far shorter supply. Across three sessions their batsmen wore down the English attack, dispelling any doubts about their drive since securing the Ashes and throwing up a few more concerning their defeated rivals.
Looking drained after the toil, Ben Stokes and his team trudged off at stumps exhausted and overwhelmed. Steve Smith’s century number thirty-seven, 129 not out from 205 balls, had come after the second half of Travis Head’s blistering 163 from 166, and with it Australia had reached 518 for seven from 124 overs. The lead sat at 134 runs overnight and looked an ominous one.
A Cricketing Icon's Opinion
The renowned Neil Harvey, 97, gave his views in a delightful interview.
I've been unimpressed with England. I think the way they approach 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 average opponents but when you get a quality outfit like Australia it's a completely different proposition. I used to score runs relatively quickly, and everyone gets a lot of pleasure out of it, but when you try to play this aggressive approach it takes the odds away from winning an important Test. I'd like to see them rein themselves in.
A Baptism of Fire
Forty-five minutes into 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 short outside off stump and hacked over gully by Travis Head. His third ball was back of a length and smashed past midwicket by Travis Head. His fourth ball was negotiated with a show of concentrated care, to loud, mocking cheers from a crowd that had begun to get involved. A grueling introduction, 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 skill, when “best since Bradman” was used with certainty. The thing about that phrase is that even when the recipient has reigned supreme for years, it gets bestowed too quickly, given the point of comparison is a career spanning twenty years. Lots of players hit their peak for a time, no other has maintained that level.
The combination of those phases, though, propelled him into a exceptional position on the third day. In the annals 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 looming ever nearer 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: A Forgone Conclusion
The latest Ashes series, perhaps the most underwhelming series in the 144 years since Fred Spofforth raised hell at The Oval, is heading for a appropriate end. Australia are poised to overwhelm England at Sydney and win the series 4-1, a margin not even the most partisan Pom could dispute.
It's been a success of experience, composure, application, ability and Travis Head. His audacious 123 at Perth hurt England that have yet to recover; four Tests later he is happily compounding their misery. Head's surprisingly ruthless 163 helped Australia to 518 for 7 at the end of day three, a lead of 134. Steve Smith will start again on 129 after making a century that looked unavoidable even before he faced his first ball.
Australia, despite a number of flaws in their team, have won the series with an ease that is hard to comprehend. Maybe that's an English perspective. It's not Australia's fault that England did not show up – even if, on some level, they probably wanted a greater challenge.
The concluding chapter will be administered either this evening or tomorrow. There's a chance of a complete blowout when England bat, just as there was in the final innings of 2013-14 and 2021-22. Their bodies are exhausted, their confidence shot, their spirit dented. It's nearly time for everyone to go home.
