The action begins ahead of schedule again, featuring an extended morning session of two and a half hours 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. This fifth Test commenced with a fitting tribute to the victims and first responders of the Bondi incident, and on the third day the Sydney Cricket Ground was transformed into a wave of pink to once again generate donations for the McGrath Foundation.
Between the wickets, however, Australian benevolence was in far scarcer quantity. Across three sessions their batters ground England’s bowlers into the dust, answering any questions about their motivation since securing the Ashes and raising a few more about their defeated rivals.
Faces flush from the ordeal, Ben Stokes and his team trudged off at stumps exhausted and overwhelmed. 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 reached 518 for seven from 124 overs. The lead sat at 134 runs overnight and looked an ominous one.
Veteran's Viewpoint
The famed Neil Harvey, 97, gave his views in a engaging interview.
I've been let down by England. I think the way they approach the batting side of things, they get too impetuous, 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 top-tier team like Australia it's a completely different proposition. I used to score runs at a fair pace, and everyone gets a lot of satisfaction out of it, but when you try to play this Bazball thing it takes the odds away from winning an important Test. I'd like to see them rein themselves in.
A Tough Introduction
Forty-five minutes into a gloomy morning at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Matt Potts came into the England attack from the Randwick End, and immediately began utilizing his different deliveries.
His first ball was sprayed down the leg side and clobbered through cover by Travis Head. His second ball was both short and wide and hacked over gully by Travis Head. His third ball was short and straight and smashed past midwicket by Travis Head. His fourth ball was negotiated with a show of studious defense, to jeering shouts from a crowd that had begun to get involved. A tough initiation, Pottsy. And yes, it's always like this around here.
Scaling the Ashes Mountain
There was a time, while Steve Smith was at the pinnacle of his batting skill, when “best since Bradman” was used with confidence. 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 hit their peak for a time, no other has remained there.
The amalgamation of those phases, though, propelled him into a exceptional position on the third day. In the statistics of the game there are landmarks, then there are summits. For a long time in Smith's Ashes-centric 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 climb. Jack Hobbs's 3,636 runs against Australia is the one he overtook on Tuesday.
Preamble: A Forgone Conclusion
The 2025-26 Ashes, perhaps the most anticlimactic series in the 144 years since Fred Spofforth raised hell at The Oval, is limping towards a fitting conclusion. Australia are set to overwhelm England at Sydney and win the series 4-1, a result not even the most biased Pom could argue with.
It's been a triumph of experience, composure, skill, skill and Travis Head. His daring 123 at Perth exposed English frailties that have yet to mend; four Tests later he is happily compounding their misery. Head's deceptively pitiless 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 unavoidable even before he faced his first ball.
Australia, despite a number of flaws in their team, have won the series with an ease that is hard to comprehend. Maybe that's an English perspective. It's not Australia's fault that England did not show up – even if, on some level, they probably desired a greater challenge.
The final act 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 final innings of 2013-14 and 2021-22. Their bodies are tired, their confidence broken, their spirit broken. It's nearly time for everyone to go home.
