🔗 Share this article Australia v England – The Final Ashes Test, Day Four: Live Updates Play gets underway early once more, with a two-and-a-half-hour morning session to make up some of the overs lost on the first day. The athletes are getting ready to take the field. Charity and Command on Display They do things well in Australia. This fifth Test commenced with a moving homage to the victims and first responders of the Bondi tragedy, and on the third day the Sydney Cricket Ground was transformed into a wave of pink to once again collect money for the McGrath Foundation. On the field of play, though, Australian charity was in far scarcer quantity. Across three sessions their batsmen ground England’s bowlers into the dust, answering any questions about their drive since securing the Ashes and raising a few more about their beaten opponents. Faces flush from the ordeal, Ben Stokes and his team departed at stumps exhausted and overwhelmed. Steve Smith’s 37th hundred in Tests, 129 not out from 205 balls, had come after the latter part of Travis Head’s blistering 163 from 166, and with it Australia had attained 518 for seven from 124 overs. The lead stood at 134 runs overnight and looked an threatening one. Legendary Critique The renowned Neil Harvey, 97, offered his perspective in a engaging interview. I've been disappointed in England. I think the way they tackle 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 top-tier team like Australia it's a different ballgame. 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 style it reduces the chances of winning an important Test. I'd like to see them pull their hooves in. A Tough Introduction Forty-five minutes into a somewhat cloudy morning at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Matt Potts was introduced 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 outside off stump and slashed over gully by Travis Head. His third ball was on a good length and pulled past midwicket by Travis Head. His fourth ball was negotiated 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 height of his batting skill, when “best since Bradman” was used with confidence. 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, propelled him into a exceptional position on the third day. In the statistics 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 drawing gradually closer 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: An Anticlimactic Finale The 2025-26 Ashes, possibly the most underwhelming series in the 144 years since Fred Spofforth raised hell at The Oval, is staggering to a appropriate end. Australia are poised to crush England at Sydney and win the series 4-1, a result not even the most partisan Pom could contest. It's been a triumph of experience, maturity, application, skill and Travis Head. His daring 123 at Perth hurt England that have yet to recover; 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 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 Anglocentric view. It's not Australia's fault that England were not competitive – 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 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 dented. It's nearly time for everyone to go home.
Play gets underway early once more, with a two-and-a-half-hour morning session to make up some of the overs lost on the first day. The athletes are getting ready to take the field.
Charity and Command on Display They do things well in Australia. This fifth Test commenced with a moving homage to the victims and first responders of the Bondi tragedy, and on the third day the Sydney Cricket Ground was transformed into a wave of pink to once again collect money for the McGrath Foundation. On the field of play, though, Australian charity was in far scarcer quantity. Across three sessions their batsmen ground England’s bowlers into the dust, answering any questions about their drive since securing the Ashes and raising a few more about their beaten opponents. Faces flush from the ordeal, Ben Stokes and his team departed at stumps exhausted and overwhelmed. Steve Smith’s 37th hundred in Tests, 129 not out from 205 balls, had come after the latter part of Travis Head’s blistering 163 from 166, and with it Australia had attained 518 for seven from 124 overs. The lead stood at 134 runs overnight and looked an threatening one.
Legendary Critique The renowned Neil Harvey, 97, offered his perspective in a engaging interview. I've been disappointed in England. I think the way they tackle 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 top-tier team like Australia it's a different ballgame. 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 style it reduces the chances of winning an important Test. I'd like to see them pull their hooves in.
A Tough Introduction Forty-five minutes into a somewhat cloudy morning at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Matt Potts was introduced 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 outside off stump and slashed over gully by Travis Head. His third ball was on a good length and pulled past midwicket by Travis Head. His fourth ball was negotiated 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 height of his batting skill, when “best since Bradman” was used with confidence. 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, propelled him into a exceptional position on the third day. In the statistics 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 drawing gradually closer 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: An Anticlimactic Finale The 2025-26 Ashes, possibly the most underwhelming series in the 144 years since Fred Spofforth raised hell at The Oval, is staggering to a appropriate end. Australia are poised to crush England at Sydney and win the series 4-1, a result not even the most partisan Pom could contest. It's been a triumph of experience, maturity, application, skill and Travis Head. His daring 123 at Perth hurt England that have yet to recover; 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 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 Anglocentric view. It's not Australia's fault that England were not competitive – 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 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 dented. It's nearly time for everyone to go home.