 "Australia’s Travis Head (R) celebrates with teammate Steve Smith after reaching his 150 runs on day three of the fifth Ashes cricket Test between Australia and England at the Sydney Cricket Ground in Sydney on January 6, 2026. AFP")
England have had worse sessions in this series, with far bigger consequences, after all it is not by accident that they have been comprehensively outplayed and trail 3-1. However it is hard to think of one that imbued the spectator with a greater sense of hopelessness than today’s morning session.
After the mini-resurgence in Melbourne here England were finally entering their often-seen Australian Ashes death spiral, circling the plughole of this ill-fated and disappointing tour, the last grubby vestiges of competitiveness draining away in the Sydney sun.
In theory England began the day still with a chance of getting on the front foot in this game, after all they held a 218-run lead and with a nightwatchman at the crease a real chance of cracking an immediate opening into the opposition batting lineup. There have however got to be very few theories ever that seemed less likely to be proven correct.
England continue to be erratic
On Day One England had botched the opportunity to make the 450 plus that Joe Root’s knock had afforded them, and more pertinently, then bowled abysmally with the new ball to end a disappointing day in the most depressing of fashion.
With a good night’s sleep and the chance to reevaluate their bowling plans, the optimist would say England had a great chance to put Australia under early pressure. Not even the pessimist could have foreseen quite how badly things would actually go for them.
There are many well worn elements that go into having a bad session, England soon began artistically layering them over each other as if assembling a David Hockney photo collage of the worst one imaginable.
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View AllMichael Neser’s wicket did not, as it happens, provide a nice early inroad into Australia’s batting card. In fact the nightwatchman provided the first piece of England’s horror show. Neser stuck around for over 20 tortuous overs, a Gold Coast sea urchin painfully lodged in England’s foot. Oh and for good measure they wasted two unsuccessful reviews on him – 18 overs into the day and they were already all out of DRS challenges.
Just another day for Travis Head
At the other end Travis Head did what he had done the day before, and all series long, knocked England’s bowlers around with an ease and aggression that they have never really found an answer for.
Head was 91 overnight, sealing a third century of the series always seemed like a formality and so it proved, three figures brought up from just 105 balls.
No truly terrible session is complete without dropped catches and England soon added some to the ghastly tableau, Head on 121 and 157, Smith on 12. Head’s first dropping by Will Jacks, a regulation effort on the boundary, was all the more galling given it was about the only time in the series that England’s resorting to the short ball ploy has actually yielded immediate results.
It was not though as if this was a new phenomenon for the tourists, by the time the day had finished their tally of dropped catches in the series stood at 17.
Matthew Potts has waited all tour for his chance in the side, his imagined usefulness to the team only growing the longer he remained off the field. Unfortunately, on it that usefulness has proved just as imaginary, by the close he was 0/141 from 25 overs bowled, his century of runs conceded only brought up more quickly once in Tests for England.
Five England players have now ignominiously managed to bring up hundreds with the ball in this series, only one has managed it with the bat.
By the time lunch brought a merciful end to the morning session Australia were 281/3, on paper they trailed by 103 runs but never has a deficit felt less consequential.
After the gaudy morning excess of awfulness the platform had been set for the rest of the day to play out in more traditional attritionally bad style for England. By the close Steve Smith had scored one of the more inevitable Ashes hundreds you will ever see. He finished 129 unbeaten, Australia 518/7 – 134 runs ahead and with the firmest of grasps on a 4-1 final series scoreline.