It’s another early start today, with a two-and-a-half-hour morning session to make up some of the overs lost on the first day. The players are making final preparations to step onto the ground.
They do things well in Australia. On the first day of this fifth Test came a fitting tribute to the sufferers and heroes of the Bondi tragedy, and on the third day the Sydney Cricket Ground was became a wave of pink to once again collect money for the McGrath Foundation.
Out in the middle, however, Australian charity was in far shorter supply. Across three sessions their batsmen wore down the English attack, answering any questions about their motivation since securing the Ashes and posing a few more concerning their beaten opponents.
Looking drained after the toil, Ben Stokes and his team walked off at stumps exhausted and overwhelmed. Steve Smith’s 37th hundred in Tests, 129 not out from 205 balls, had come after 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 was 134 runs overnight and looked an ominous one.
The legendary Neil Harvey, 97, gave his views in a delightful interview.
I've been unimpressed with England. I think the way they handle 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 class side like Australia it's a whole new challenge. I used to score runs at a fair pace, and everyone gets a lot of pleasure 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 rein themselves in.
Shortly after the start of a somewhat cloudy 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 sprayed down the leg side and clobbered through cover by Travis Head. His second ball was both short outside off stump and cut over gully by Travis Head. His third ball was short and straight and smashed past midwicket by Travis Head. His fourth ball was blocked with a show of concentrated care, to loud, mocking cheers from a crowd that had begun to get involved. Welcome to the treadmill, Pottsy. And yes, it's always like this around here.
There was a time, while Steve Smith was at the peak of his batting mastery, when “best since Bradman” was used with assurance. The thing about that phrase is that even when the recipient has excelled for years, it gets bestowed too quickly, given the point of comparison is a career enduring for 20 years. Lots of players reach the top for a time, no other has stayed as long.
The combination of those phases, though, took him to a uncommon position on the third day. In the annals of the game there are landmarks, then there are mountaintops. For a long time in Smith's Ashes-heavy career there have been two peaks drawing gradually closer 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 ascended on Tuesday.
The latest Ashes series, arguably the most disappointing series in the 144 years since Fred Spofforth made history at The Oval, is staggering to a fitting conclusion. Australia are poised to overwhelm England at Sydney and win the series 4-1, a scoreline not even the most partisan Pom could argue with.
It's been a success of know-how, maturity, discipline, skill and Travis Head. His bold 123 at Perth opened English wounds that have yet to mend; 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 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 understand. 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 wanted a greater challenge.
The final act will be conducted 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 weary, their confidence broken, their spirit broken. It's nearly time for everyone to go home.
Eva de Vries is a passionate book lover and local writer from Eindhoven.
