It’s another early start today, featuring an extended morning session of two and a half hours to compensate for some of the time lost on the first day. The cricketers are making final preparations to begin play.
Charity and Command on Display
Australia knows how to host an event. The opening day of this final Test featured a fitting tribute to the sufferers and heroes of the Bondi atrocity, and on the third day the Sydney Cricket Ground was turned into a wave of pink to once again raise funds for the McGrath Foundation.
On the field of play, though, Australian charity was in far more limited availability. Across three sessions their batsmen wore down the English attack, addressing any queries about their drive since securing the Ashes and throwing up a few more concerning their beaten opponents.
Visibly weary from the effort, Ben Stokes and his team walked off at stumps seeing pink elephants. Steve Smith’s 37th hundred in Tests, 129 not out from 205 balls, had succeeded the concluding stages of Travis Head’s sizzling 163 from 166, and with it Australia had reached 518 for seven from 124 overs. The lead stood at 134 runs overnight and looked an ominous one.
Veteran's Viewpoint
The famed Neil Harvey, 97, shared his thoughts in a delightful interview.
I've been unimpressed with England. I think the way they approach the batting side of things, they get too impetuous, nobody seems to want to play a long innings, 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 whole new challenge. I used to score runs quite rapidly, and everyone gets a lot of pleasure 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 pull their hooves in.
A Baptism of Fire
Shortly after the start of a quietly overcast morning at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Matt Potts was introduced into the England attack from the Randwick End, and immediately began trying out his variations.
His first ball was full and wide and smashed through cover by Travis Head. His second ball was both short outside off stump and slashed over gully by Travis Head. His third ball was back of a length and driven past midwicket by Travis Head. His fourth ball was defended with a show of concentrated care, 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 height of his batting mastery, 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 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 remained there.
The amalgamation of those phases, though, propelled him into a uncommon position on the third day. In the annals of the game there are achievements, then there are peaks. 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 climb. Jack Hobbs's 3,636 runs against Australia is the one he overtook on Tuesday.
Preamble: A Forgone Conclusion
The 2025-26 Ashes, possibly the most anticlimactic series in the 144 years since Fred Spofforth made history at The Oval, is heading for 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 victory of know-how, maturity, discipline, talent and Travis Head. His audacious 123 at Perth exposed English frailties that have yet to heal; 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 certain even before he faced his first ball.
Australia, despite a number of weaknesses in their team, have won the series with an simplicity that is hard to fathom. Maybe that's an Anglocentric view. It's not Australia's fault that England did not show up – even if, on some level, they probably craved a greater challenge.
The final act will be conducted 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 shot, their spirit dented. It's nearly time for everyone to go home.
