It’s another early start today, with a two-and-a-half-hour morning session to recover some of the overs lost on the first day. The players are preparing to step onto the ground.
Charity and Command on Display
Events are handled superbly in Australia. On the first day of this fifth Test came a moving homage to the those affected and the emergency services of the Bondi tragedy, and on the third day the Sydney Cricket Ground was became a wave of pink to once again raise funds for the McGrath Foundation.
Out in the middle, however, Australian charity was in far more limited availability. Across three sessions their batmen ground England’s bowlers into the dust, dispelling any doubts about their motivation since securing the Ashes and posing a few more regarding their beaten opponents.
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 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 daunting one.
A Cricketing Icon's Opinion
The famed Neil Harvey, 97, gave his views in a charming 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 construct a knock, 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 quite rapidly, 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 Baptism of Fire
Shortly after the start of a gloomy morning at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Matt Potts came into the England attack from the Randwick End, and immediately began trying out his different deliveries.
His first ball was full and wide and clobbered through cover by Travis Head. His second ball was both short outside off stump and slashed 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 furrowed caution, to jeering shouts from a crowd that had begun to tuck into the day. A tough initiation, Pottsy. And yes, it's always like this around here.
A Historic Achievement
There was a time, while Steve Smith was at the peak of his batting skill, when “best since Bradman” was used with certainty. The thing about that description is that even when the recipient has reigned supreme for years, it gets granted too quickly, given the point of comparison is a career enduring for 20 years. Lots of players reach the top for a time, no other has stayed as long.
The combination of those phases, though, took him to a uncommon position on the third day. In the record books of the game there are achievements, then there are mountaintops. For a long time in Smith's Ashes-heavy 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 ascended on Tuesday.
Preamble: A One-Sided Conclusion
The 2025-26 Ashes, arguably the most underwhelming 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 scoreline not even the most biased Pom could dispute.
It's been a victory of experience, composure, discipline, talent and Travis Head. His bold 123 at Perth exposed English frailties that have yet to mend; four Tests later he is cheerily grinding salt into them. Head's deceptively pitiless 163 helped Australia to 518 for 7 at the end of day three, a lead of 134. Steve Smith will resume 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 understand. 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 craved a greater challenge.
The final act will be administered either this evening or tomorrow. There's a chance of a one-sided finish 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 broken. It's nearly time for everyone to go home.
