It’s another early start today, as a lengthy two-and-a-half-hour morning stint to recover some of the play washed out on the first day. The cricketers are making final preparations to begin play.
A Sea of Pink and a Display of Dominance
They do things well in Australia. The opening day of this final Test featured a moving homage to the those affected and the emergency services of the Bondi tragedy, and on the third day the Sydney Cricket Ground was turned into a ocean of pink to once again generate donations for the McGrath Foundation.
Between the wickets, however, Australian benevolence was in far more limited availability. Across three sessions their batters ground England’s bowlers into the dust, answering any questions about their drive since securing the Ashes and posing a few more concerning their beaten opponents.
Faces flush from the ordeal, Ben Stokes and his team trudged off at stumps seeing pink elephants. Steve Smith’s century number thirty-seven, 129 not out from 205 balls, had followed the concluding stages of Travis Head’s sizzling 163 from 166, and with it Australia had attained 518 for seven from 124 overs. The lead was 134 runs overnight and looked an ominous one.
Legendary Critique
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 careless, nobody seems to want to construct a knock, like a Cowdrey or a Boycott.
It might work against average opponents but when you get a quality outfit like Australia it's a whole new challenge. 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 gloomy morning at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Matt Potts was introduced into the England attack from the Randwick End, and immediately began running through his different deliveries.
His first ball was 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 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 settle in for the day's play. A tough initiation, 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 prowess, 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 spanning twenty years. Lots of players reach the top for a time, no other has remained there.
The amalgamation of those phases, though, took him to a uncommon position on the third day. In the record books of the game there are milestones, then there are mountaintops. For a long time in Smith's Ashes-heavy 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 scale. Jack Hobbs's 3,636 runs against Australia is the one he overtook on Tuesday.
Preamble: A One-Sided Conclusion
The 2025-26 Ashes, perhaps the most anticlimactic series in the 144 years since Fred Spofforth made history at The Oval, is heading for a fitting conclusion. Australia are poised to overwhelm England at Sydney and win the series 4-1, a margin not even the most one-eyed Pom could argue with.
It's been a success of know-how, maturity, application, ability and Travis Head. His audacious 123 at Perth exposed English frailties that have yet to mend; four Tests later he is cheerily grinding salt into them. Head's deceptively pitiless 163 helped Australia to 518 for 7 at the end of day three, a lead of 134. Steve Smith will start again on 129 after making a century that looked certain 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 comprehend. 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 desired 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 last knock 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.
