The action begins ahead of schedule again, as a lengthy two-and-a-half-hour morning stint to make up some of the overs lost on the first day. The players are getting ready to take the field.
Pink Tributes and Batting Might
They do things well in Australia. On the first day of this fifth Test came a appropriate remembrance to the victims and first responders of the Bondi incident, and on the third day the Sydney Cricket Ground was became a wave of pink to once again collect money for the McGrath Foundation.
On the field of play, though, Australian generosity was in far more limited availability. Across three sessions their batmen wore down the English attack, addressing any queries about their motivation 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 37th hundred in Tests, 129 not out from 205 balls, had followed the concluding stages of Travis Head’s blistering 163 from 166, and with it Australia had reached 518 for seven from 124 overs. The lead was 134 runs overnight and looked an threatening one.
A Cricketing Icon's Opinion
The famed Neil Harvey, 97, shared his thoughts in a engaging interview.
I've been disappointed in England. I think the way they tackle the batting side of things, they get too impetuous, nobody seems to want to play a long 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 completely different proposition. I used to score runs at a fair pace, and everyone gets a lot of enjoyment 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 rein themselves in.
A Harsh Welcome
Almost an hour 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 change-ups.
His first ball was sprayed down the leg side and clobbered 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 pulled past midwicket by Travis Head. His fourth ball was negotiated with a show of studious defense, to raucous, sarcastic applause from a crowd that had begun to get involved. Welcome to the treadmill, 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 assurance. The thing about that phrase is that even when the recipient has excelled for years, it gets applied 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 uncommon position on the third day. In the annals of the game there are achievements, then there are summits. For a long time in Smith's Ashes-centric 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 ascended on Tuesday.
Preamble: A Forgone Conclusion
The current Ashes battle, perhaps the most underwhelming series in the 144 years since Fred Spofforth made history at The Oval, is staggering to a fitting conclusion. Australia are poised to overwhelm England at Sydney and win the series 4-1, a margin not even the most one-eyed Pom could argue with.
It's been a success of maturity, discipline, application, skill and Travis Head. His daring 123 at Perth opened English wounds that have yet to recover; 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 ease that is hard to comprehend. Maybe that's an English perspective. It's not Australia's fault that England failed to turn up – even if, on some level, they probably wanted a greater challenge.
The last rites will be delivered either this evening or tomorrow. There's a chance of a total collapse when England bat, just as there was in the concluding effort 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.
