The Baggy Greens v The Three Lions – The Final Ashes Test, The Fourth Day: Live Updates
Play gets underway early once more, with a two-and-a-half-hour morning session to compensate for some of the overs lost on the first day. The cricketers are preparing to begin play.
Charity and Command on Display
Events are handled superbly in Australia. On the first day of this fifth Test came a fitting tribute to the victims and first responders of the Bondi atrocity, and on the third day the Sydney Cricket Ground was transformed into a wave of pink to once again raise funds for the McGrath Foundation.
On the field of play, though, Australian generosity was in far shorter supply. Across three sessions their batmen wore down the English attack, addressing any queries about their motivation since securing the Ashes and posing a few more regarding their defeated rivals.
Looking drained after the toil, Ben Stokes and his team walked off at stumps battle-weary. Steve Smith’s 37th hundred in Tests, 129 not out from 205 balls, had followed the latter part of Travis Head’s blistering 163 from 166, and with it Australia had attained 518 for seven from 124 overs. The lead stood 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 unimpressed with England. I think the way they approach the batting side of things, they get too reckless, nobody seems to want to build an 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 different ballgame. I used to score runs relatively quickly, and everyone gets a lot of satisfaction out of it, but when you try to play this aggressive approach it reduces the chances of winning an important Test. I'd like to see them show more restraint.
A Harsh Welcome
Forty-five minutes into a somewhat cloudy morning at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Matt Potts entered the England attack from the Randwick End, and immediately began running through his variations.
His first ball was sprayed down the leg side and smashed through cover by Travis Head. His second ball was both short and wide and slashed over gully by Travis Head. His third ball was short and straight and smashed past midwicket by Travis Head. His fourth ball was defended with a show of furrowed caution, to raucous, sarcastic applause from a crowd that had begun to tuck into the day. A grueling introduction, Pottsy. And yes, it's always like this around here.
Scaling the Ashes Mountain
There was a time, while Steve Smith was at the height of his batting mastery, when “best since Bradman” was used with confidence. The thing about that description is that even when the recipient has excelled for years, it gets applied too quickly, given the point of comparison is a career enduring for 20 years. Lots of players hit their peak for a time, no other has maintained that level.
The blend of those phases, though, took him to a exceptional position on the third day. In the statistics of the game there are landmarks, then there are mountaintops. For a long time in Smith's Ashes-focused 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 conquer. Jack Hobbs's 3,636 runs against Australia is the one he overtook on Tuesday.
Preamble: An Anticlimactic Finale
The latest Ashes series, arguably the most anticlimactic series in the 144 years since Fred Spofforth caused havoc at The Oval, is heading for a appropriate end. Australia are set to crush England at Sydney and win the series 4-1, a result not even the most one-eyed Pom could contest.
It's been a success of know-how, composure, discipline, skill and Travis Head. His daring 123 at Perth opened English wounds that have yet to heal; four Tests later he is happily compounding their misery. Head's surprisingly ruthless 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 unavoidable 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 Anglocentric view. It's not Australia's fault that England were not competitive – even if, on some level, they probably wanted a greater challenge.
The last rites will be delivered either this evening or tomorrow. There's a chance of a complete blowout when England bat, just as there was in the concluding effort of 2013-14 and 2021-22. Their bodies are weary, their confidence shot, their spirit crushed. It's nearly time for everyone to go home.
