The action begins ahead of schedule again, as a lengthy two-and-a-half-hour morning stint to recover some of the overs lost on the first day. The athletes are getting ready to take the field.
A Sea of Pink and a Display of Dominance
They do things well in Australia. This fifth Test commenced with 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 wave of pink to once again raise funds for the McGrath Foundation.
Out in the middle, however, Australian generosity was in far more limited availability. Across three sessions their batsmen wore down the English attack, dispelling any doubts about their drive since securing the Ashes and posing a few more regarding their defeated rivals.
Looking drained after the toil, Ben Stokes and his team trudged off at stumps seeing pink elephants. Steve Smith’s 37th hundred in Tests, 129 not out from 205 balls, had succeeded the concluding stages of Travis Head’s blistering 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 daunting one.
Veteran's Viewpoint
The legendary Neil Harvey, 97, gave his views in a charming interview.
I've been let down by England. I think the way they tackle the batting side of things, they get too impetuous, nobody seems to want to build an innings, like a Cowdrey or a Boycott.
It might work against lesser sides but when you get a top-tier team like Australia it's a whole new challenge. I used to score runs at a fair pace, and everyone gets a lot of satisfaction out of it, but when you try to play this aggressive approach it reduces the chances of winning an important Test. I'd like to see them rein themselves in.
A Tough Introduction
Almost an hour into a gloomy morning at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Matt Potts was introduced into the England attack from the Randwick End, and immediately began running through his variations.
His first ball was sprayed down the leg side and clobbered through cover by Travis Head. His second ball was both back of a length and outside off and hacked over gully by Travis Head. His third ball was short and straight 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. 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 peak 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 bestowed too quickly, given the point of comparison is a career lasting two decades. Lots of players attain greatness for a time, no other has maintained that level.
The blend 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-focused 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 ascended on Tuesday.
Preamble: An Anticlimactic Finale
The latest Ashes series, arguably the most disappointing series in the 144 years since Fred Spofforth made history at The Oval, is limping towards a suitable finale. Australia are set to defeat comprehensively England at Sydney and win the series 4-1, a scoreline not even the most biased Pom could argue with.
It's been a victory of know-how, discipline, application, skill and Travis Head. His audacious 123 at Perth exposed English frailties that have yet to recover; four Tests later he is cheerily grinding salt into them. Head's seemingly relentless 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 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 wanted a greater challenge.
The last rites will be delivered 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 weary, their confidence shattered, their spirit dented. It's nearly time for everyone to go home.
