Play gets underway early once more, with a two-and-a-half-hour morning session to recover some of the overs lost on the first day. The players are making final preparations to step onto the ground.
Pink Tributes and Batting Might
They do things well in Australia. The opening day of this final Test featured a appropriate remembrance to the those affected and the emergency services of the Bondi incident, and on the third day the Sydney Cricket Ground was became a wave of pink to once again generate donations for the McGrath Foundation.
On the field of play, though, Australian benevolence was in far more limited availability. Across three sessions their batmen wore down the English attack, dispelling any doubts about their drive since securing the Ashes and posing a few more about their vanquished foes.
Faces flush from the ordeal, Ben Stokes and his team trudged off at stumps seeing pink elephants. 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 achieved 518 for seven from 124 overs. The lead stood at 134 runs overnight and looked an daunting one.
A Cricketing Icon's Opinion
The legendary Neil Harvey, 97, offered his perspective in a charming interview.
I've been disappointed in England. I think the way they handle the batting side of things, they get too impetuous, nobody seems to want to build an 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 completely different proposition. I used to score runs relatively quickly, and everyone gets a lot of pleasure out of it, but when you try to play this Bazball thing 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 quietly overcast morning at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Matt Potts came into the England attack from the Randwick End, and immediately began running through his variations.
His first ball was wide and clobbered through cover by Travis Head. His second ball was both short and wide and slashed over gully by Travis Head. His third ball was back of a length and pulled past midwicket by Travis Head. His fourth ball was defended with a show of studious defense, to raucous, sarcastic applause from a crowd that had begun to settle in for the day's play. Welcome to the treadmill, 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 certainty. The thing about that line 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 attain greatness for a time, no other has stayed as long.
The blend of those phases, though, took him to a uncommon position on the third day. In the record books of the game there are achievements, then there are mountaintops. For a long time in Smith's Ashes-heavy 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: A One-Sided Conclusion
The current Ashes battle, arguably the most disappointing series in the 144 years since Fred Spofforth caused havoc at The Oval, is staggering to a appropriate end. Australia are poised to defeat comprehensively England at Sydney and win the series 4-1, a margin not even the most one-eyed Pom could contest.
It's been a success of maturity, maturity, skill, talent and Travis Head. His audacious 123 at Perth opened English wounds that have yet to recover; four Tests later he is happily compounding their misery. Head's seemingly relentless 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 inevitable even before he faced his first ball.
Australia, despite a number of flaws in their team, have won the series with an simplicity that is hard to understand. Maybe that's an Pommy outlook. It's not Australia's fault that England did not show up – even if, on some level, they probably wanted a greater challenge.
The concluding chapter will be conducted either this evening or tomorrow. There's a chance of a complete blowout when England bat, just as there was in the last knock of 2013-14 and 2021-22. Their bodies are tired, their confidence shattered, their spirit broken. It's nearly time for everyone to go home.
