Steve Smith scored his first hundred of this Ashes series and Travis Head his third as Australia punished England’s dropped catches to open up a 134-run lead after day three of the fifth and final Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Smith (129no) hit his 37th Test ton and 13th against England after being grassed on 12 by Zak Crawley at leg slip, as he became the second-highest run-scorer in Ashes cricket, above England legend Jack Hobbs and behind only Australian great Don Bradman.
Head (163 off 166) was spilled by Will Jacks on 121 and 156 – the first error, at deep midwicket, was a shocker – as the hosts topped England’s 384 all out in their push for a 4-1 series victory.
Australia closed on 518-7 and the fact part-time England spinners Jacks and Jacob Bethell arguably looked the most likely source of a wicket towards the end of the day said a lot about the tourists’ flagging attack with Matthew Potts, playing his first Test of the series, seeing his pace dip and figures reach to 0-141 from 25 overs.
Head’s record for this Ashes now reads 600 runs from 685 balls faced at an average of 66.66, with the left-hander cracking each of his tons at the top of the order after moving to that spot following the retiring Usman Khawaja’s back injury in the first Test at Perth.
Smith, however, had endured a fairly quiet series up to this point, missing the Adelaide Test through vertigo and recording a highest score of 61 in the Brisbane day-nighter, but was at his idiosyncratic best as he made England toil on his home ground.
The 36-year-old, also now the second-highest run-scorer across all SCG Tests, behind only Ricky Ponting, chuntered to himself, became distracted by movement behind the bowler’s arm and the glare off Brydon Carse’s sunglasses, and performed a roly-poly as he evaded a Josh Tongue bouncer, before he reached three figures with a clip for three off Bethell during an innings in which he displayed his class.
Smith did a roly-ploy as he evaded a Josh Tongue bouncer in Sydney
Head continues to master England in Ashes
Head, who slammed three fours in a row off Potts after notching his ton, was inexplicably dropped by Jacks in the deep on the leg-side and then grassed by the same player when a sharp caught-and-bowled chance went down as he motored along after resuming on 91 and with his team placed at 166-2, 218 runs behind.
The left-hander, finally out lbw to Bethell, is the first Australia opener since Matthew Hayden in 2002-03 to score three hundreds in an Ashes series and now has five centuries against England in Tests, having also hit tons against them in Hobart and Brisbane during the 2021-22 contest that the home side won 4-0.
Head and nightwatchman Michael Neser (24 off 90) frustrated England in the first session as they extended their partnership to 72 before Neser was nicked off by Carse (3-108), shortly after the tourists had burned their final review looking for a leg before against the Queensland seamer.
Travis Head is the first Australia opener to score three hundreds in an Ashes series since Matthew Hayden in 2002-03
Three wickets fell in the afternoon, with Head out on the sweep as Bethell snaffled his first Ashes wicket, Khawaja (17) – in what could turn out to be his final Test innings – lbw to Carse and wasting a review looking to save himself, and Alex Carey (16) then flicking Tongue (1-89) to Bethell at leg slip, the spot where Crawley shelled Smith off the same bowler diving to his left.
Australia began the evening six down and trailing by seven runs, but Smith and Cameron Green (37) stitched a stand of 71 to wear England down before the latter lost concentration and hacked a Carse short ball to Ben Duckett at midwicket.
Beau Webster (42no) then combined with Smith to add an unbroken 81 as England were ground further into the Sydney dirt and with the pitch showing mild signs of breaking up, batting third may not be easy for Ben Stokes’ tiring side.
Ashes series in Australia 2025-26
Australia lead five-match series 3-1
