Play gets underway early once more, with a two-and-a-half-hour morning session to make up some of the overs lost on the first day. The athletes are preparing to step onto the ground.
Pink Tributes and Batting Might
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 atrocity, and on the third day the Sydney Cricket Ground was became a ocean of pink to once again generate donations for the McGrath Foundation.
On the field of play, though, Australian benevolence was in far scarcer quantity. Across three sessions their batters dominated the English bowling, addressing any queries about their motivation since securing the Ashes and posing a few more regarding their vanquished foes.
Faces flush from the ordeal, Ben Stokes and his team walked off at stumps seeing pink elephants. Steve Smith’s 37th Test century, 129 not out from 205 balls, had come after the second half of Travis Head’s explosive 163 from 166, and with it Australia had attained 518 for seven from 124 overs. The lead sat at 134 runs overnight and looked an ominous one.
Veteran's Viewpoint
The legendary Neil Harvey, 97, offered his perspective 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 reckless, nobody seems to want to play a long innings, like a Cowdrey or a Boycott.
It might work against lesser sides but when you get a class side like Australia it's a different ballgame. 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 takes the odds away from winning an important Test. I'd like to see them rein themselves in.
A Tough Introduction
Shortly after the start of a somewhat cloudy morning at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Matt Potts came into the England attack from the Randwick End, and immediately began utilizing his change-ups.
His first ball was full and wide and clobbered through cover by Travis Head. His second ball was both short outside off stump 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 negotiated with a show of concentrated care, to jeering shouts from a crowd that had begun to settle in for the day's play. A grueling introduction, Pottsy. And yes, it's always like this around here.
Joining the Pantheon
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 spanning twenty years. Lots of players reach the top for a time, no other has stayed as long.
The amalgamation of those phases, though, propelled him into a uncommon position on the third day. In the statistics of the game there are achievements, then there are summits. For a long time in Smith's Ashes-focused 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 climb. 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 anticlimactic series in the 144 years since Fred Spofforth raised hell at The Oval, is limping towards a appropriate end. Australia are poised to overwhelm England at Sydney and win the series 4-1, a result not even the most one-eyed Pom could contest.
It's been a triumph of experience, maturity, discipline, talent and Travis Head. His daring 123 at Perth opened English wounds that have yet to mend; 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 continue on 129 after making a century that looked inevitable even before he faced his first ball.
Australia, despite a number of faultlines in their team, have won the series with an simplicity that is hard to fathom. Maybe that's an English perspective. It's not Australia's fault that England were not competitive – even if, on some level, they probably craved a greater challenge.
The final act will be delivered either this evening or tomorrow. There's a chance of a total collapse when England bat, just as there was in the final innings of 2013-14 and 2021-22. Their bodies are exhausted, their confidence broken, their spirit crushed. It's nearly time for everyone to go home.
