The action begins ahead of schedule again, as a lengthy two-and-a-half-hour morning stint to recover some of the time lost on the first day. The players are preparing to begin play.
Charity and Command on Display
Australia knows how to host an event. 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 generate donations for the McGrath Foundation.
On the field of play, though, Australian charity was in far more limited availability. Across three sessions their batmen dominated the English bowling, dispelling any doubts about their drive since securing the Ashes and posing a few more concerning their vanquished foes.
Looking drained after the toil, Ben Stokes and his team departed at stumps seeing pink elephants. Steve Smith’s 37th Test century, 129 not out from 205 balls, had succeeded the latter part 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 legendary Neil Harvey, 97, shared his thoughts in a engaging interview.
I've been disappointed in England. I think the way they approach 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 class side like Australia it's a whole new challenge. 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 rein themselves in.
A Baptism of Fire
Shortly after the start of a somewhat cloudy morning at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Matt Potts entered the England attack from the Randwick End, and immediately began utilizing his change-ups.
His first ball was wide and clobbered through cover by Travis Head. His second ball was both short and wide and cut over gully by Travis Head. His third ball was back of a length and smashed past midwicket by Travis Head. His fourth ball was defended with a show of furrowed caution, to loud, mocking cheers 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 peak of his batting mastery, when “best since Bradman” was used with assurance. The thing about that phrase is that even when the recipient has dominated for years, it gets bestowed too quickly, given the point of comparison is a career spanning twenty years. Lots of players attain greatness for a time, no other has remained there.
The blend of those phases, though, propelled him into a rare position on the third day. In the record books of the game there are milestones, then there are peaks. For a long time in Smith's Ashes-heavy 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 ascended on Tuesday.
Preamble: A One-Sided Conclusion
The current Ashes battle, arguably the most anticlimactic series in the 144 years since Fred Spofforth raised hell at The Oval, is staggering to a suitable finale. Australia are set to defeat comprehensively England at Sydney and win the series 4-1, a margin not even the most partisan Pom could contest.
It's been a triumph of experience, discipline, discipline, ability and Travis Head. His bold 123 at Perth opened English wounds 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 start again on 129 after making a century that looked inevitable even before he faced his first ball.
Australia, despite a number of flaws in their team, have won the series with an simplicity that is hard to comprehend. Maybe that's an Anglocentric view. It's not Australia's fault that England failed to turn up – even if, on some level, they probably wanted a greater challenge.
The final act will be administered either this evening or tomorrow. There's a chance of a total collapse when England bat, just as there was in the last knock of 2013-14 and 2021-22. Their bodies are exhausted, their confidence shot, their spirit broken. It's nearly time for everyone to go home.
