It’s another early start today, with a two-and-a-half-hour morning session to compensate for some of the overs lost on the first day. The cricketers are getting ready to begin play.
A Sea of Pink and a Display of Dominance
They do things well in Australia. The opening day of this final Test featured a moving homage to the victims and first responders of the Bondi tragedy, and on the third day the Sydney Cricket Ground was became a ocean of pink to once again collect money for the McGrath Foundation.
Between the wickets, however, Australian generosity was in far scarcer quantity. Across three sessions their batters wore down the English attack, dispelling any doubts about their incentive since securing the Ashes and posing a few more concerning their defeated rivals.
Looking drained after the toil, Ben Stokes and his team walked off at stumps exhausted and overwhelmed. 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 achieved 518 for seven from 124 overs. The lead was 134 runs overnight and looked an daunting one.
A Cricketing Icon's Opinion
The renowned Neil Harvey, 97, gave his views in a delightful interview.
I've been let down by England. I think the way they handle 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 top-tier team like Australia it's a completely different proposition. I used to score runs relatively quickly, and everyone gets a lot of enjoyment out of it, but when you try to play this Bazball thing it lessens the probability of winning an important Test. I'd like to see them pull their hooves in.
A Baptism of Fire
Almost an hour into a quietly overcast morning at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Matt Potts entered the England attack from the Randwick End, and immediately began trying out his different deliveries.
His first ball was sprayed down the leg side and hammered 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 back of a length and driven past midwicket by Travis Head. His fourth ball was negotiated with a show of concentrated care, to raucous, sarcastic applause from a crowd that had begun to get involved. A grueling introduction, Pottsy. And yes, it's always like this around here.
A Historic Achievement
There was a time, while Steve Smith was at the pinnacle of his batting prowess, 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 spanning twenty years. Lots of players reach the top for a time, no other has stayed as long.
The amalgamation 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 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 overtook on Tuesday.
Preamble: An Anticlimactic Finale
The current Ashes battle, possibly the most disappointing series in the 144 years since Fred Spofforth raised hell at The Oval, is limping towards a suitable finale. Australia are poised to crush England at Sydney and win the series 4-1, a margin not even the most one-eyed Pom could contest.
It's been a success of maturity, discipline, application, ability and Travis Head. His audacious 123 at Perth hurt England 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 weaknesses in their team, have won the series with an ease that is hard to understand. Maybe that's an Pommy outlook. 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 one-sided finish when England bat, just as there was in the last knock of 2013-14 and 2021-22. Their bodies are tired, their confidence shattered, their spirit crushed. It's nearly time for everyone to go home.
