1 day ago
7
They do these things well here in Australia. They honoured the victims and first responders of the Bondi atrocity fittingly on the first day of this fifth Test, and on the third the Sydney Cricket Ground became a sea of pink to once again generate welcome funds for the McGrath Foundation.
Out in the middle, however, Australian charity was in far shorter supply. Across three sessions their batters ground England’s bowlers into the dust and perhaps answered some of the questions about their motivation since winning the Ashes, not least after the madness of Melbourne.
Faces flush from the exertion, Ben Stokes and his men trudged off at stumps seeing pink elephants. Steve Smith’s 37th Test century, 129 not out from 205 balls, had followed the second half of Travis Head’s sizzling 163 from 166 and with it Australia had reached 518 for seven from 124 overs. The lead sat at 134 runs overnight and looked an ominous one.
The Barmy Army sang all day, trying to lift England’s players, but it was an all too familiar sensation for them here in Sydney. In recent times at the SCG Australia have turned the screw, having piled up 416 for eight declared here in 2022, and a monstrous 649 for seven declared four years earlier.
So much for all that worrying about the pitch leading into this match. The surface on day three was great to bat on, as was the attack to bat against.
No bowler shirked but the figures were still grim, not least Matthew Potts shipping 141 from 25 overs on his return to the side and suffering the indignity of three figures via a monstrous pulled six from Head.
It also helped that three more catches went to ground – England’s count for the series is circa 17, depending on how harsh they are judged – and Stokes burned his last two reviews trying to remove the nightwatchman, Michael Neser, in the morning. Every declined appeal thereafter was followed by jeers, all adding to the collage of bereft English imagery.
Head simply picked up where he left off the night before, adding nine quick runs for his third century in this Ashes. When finally winkled out after lunch by a left-arm dart from Jacob Bethell after lunch, the score 288 for four, Head’s totaliser for the series sat at 600 runs. And to think his conversion to firebrand opener came via Usman Khawaja’s sore back in Perth.
The left-hander was also the beneficiary of two drops by Will Jacks, the first of which, on 121, set the tone for the day. Running around from deep midwicket, Jacks seemed to have done everything, only to take his eye off the ball at the very last second and snatch at it with crocodile hands.
But for all the destruction of Head’s latest jaw-dropper, and the generous applause for Khawaja when he walked out to the middle and back in for 17, this was Smith’s day. It was one of his most eccentric, too, spotting flies on the sightscreen, gesturing after nearly every ball, and ending up with dirt-stained whites after ducking under bouncers with a roly-poly.
Smith was in vintage mood, offering one tough chance to leg slip on 12, inducing plenty of groans from the homespun technique that offers the false hope of lbw, and building steadily to a climax in the final session. And when he nudged a single on 83 he moved to 3,637 runs in Ashes cricket, leapfrogging Jack Hobbs to leave only Don Bradman, 5,028, above him.
The polite applause that met this milestone was swapped for a roar at 5pm when Smith paddled three runs behind square off Bethell to bring up his 13th Ashes century and, for the second time in the day, plonk himself between Hobbs (12) and Bradman (19) on an Ashes list.
If England were to have had a chance it was when the second new ball arrived with Australia 324 for four, still 60 runs in arrears. But while Carse managed to pin Khawaja with a yorker, and Alex Carey’s glitch with leg slip worked again, Smith found some worthy allies in Cameron Green, 37, and Beau Webster, 42 not out and reaching the close.
Having lost five for 61 to the second new ball a day earlier, England had been served with another reminder of their shortcomings on a tour that is now heading for a grisly final chapter.
