It’s another early start today, 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 cricketers are preparing to step onto the ground.
Charity and Command on Display
Events are handled superbly in Australia. This fifth Test commenced with a fitting tribute to the victims and first responders of the Bondi atrocity, and on the third day the Sydney Cricket Ground was transformed into a sea of pink to once again generate donations for the McGrath Foundation.
Between the wickets, however, Australian generosity was in far shorter supply. Across three sessions their batmen ground England’s bowlers into the dust, answering any questions about their incentive since securing the Ashes and raising a few more regarding their vanquished foes.
Faces flush from the ordeal, 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 latter part of Travis Head’s blistering 163 from 166, and with it Australia had attained 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, offered his perspective in a engaging interview.
I've been disappointed in England. I think the way they handle the batting side of things, they get too reckless, 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 quality outfit like Australia it's a different ballgame. 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 aggressive approach it lessens the probability of winning an important Test. I'd like to see them pull their hooves in.
A Baptism of Fire
Forty-five minutes into a somewhat cloudy morning at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Matt Potts came into the England attack from the Randwick End, and immediately began trying out 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 cut over gully by Travis Head. His third ball was on a good length and pulled past midwicket by Travis Head. His fourth ball was blocked with a show of furrowed caution, to raucous, sarcastic applause from a crowd that had begun to settle in for the day's play. 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 height of his batting prowess, when “best since Bradman” was used with certainty. The thing about that description 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 hit their peak 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 annals of the game there are achievements, then there are peaks. 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 scale. Jack Hobbs's 3,636 runs against Australia is the one he surpassed on Tuesday.
Preamble: A One-Sided Conclusion
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 overwhelm England at Sydney and win the series 4-1, a result not even the most biased Pom could contest.
It's been a success of maturity, composure, skill, skill and Travis Head. His bold 123 at Perth opened English wounds that have yet to heal; four Tests later he is merrily adding to their woes. 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 flaws in their team, have won the series with an comfort 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 craved a greater challenge.
The final act 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 concluding effort of 2013-14 and 2021-22. Their bodies are tired, their confidence shot, their spirit broken. It's nearly time for everyone to go home.
