It was a historic afternoon for Steve Smith at the SCG, with the Australian captain entrenching himself even further into Ashes folklore to help grind England down on Day 3 of the fifth Test.
Having steered Australia into the lead in their first innings and appearing en route to a century, a quick single saw him leapfrog Jack Hobbs into outright second place on the all time Ashes run-scoring table, with 3637 runs – albeit still nearly 1400 runs behind Don Bradman.
Even more satisfying for Smith, though, was surely his exchange with England star Harry Brook.
After being needled by Brook over his decision not to play a pull shot off part-time spinner Jacob Bethell, the veteran responded by imperiously pulling Bethell’s next ball to the square-leg boundary.
On commentary for Channel 7, Ricky Ponting enjoyed the moment.
“A little bit of interesting byplay there,” Ponting laughed.
“Brook has just been chirping at Steve Smith about attempting a pull shot. The ball before Brooks said to him ‘you could have pulled that’. He said, ‘no, it’s a bit full. It’s a little bit full’.
“Well, he got the pull shot away that ball. Look at Smith’s reaction, straight around to him. ‘There you go, Harry. There’s the pull shot you’re after’.”
‘Cannot believe it!’ Stokes shocked after burning last review
Despite having already burned two of their three DRS reviews earlier in Australia’s innings, Ben Stokes was willing to roll the dice when fast bowler Brydon Carse was adamant he’d trapped Michael Neser LBW.
Neser jammed down on a yorker midway through the first session on Day 3 at the SCG, with Carse – the only England player to appeal – convinced the ball had flicked his boot before finding the middle of the bat.
Stokes’ review appeared to be vindicated when slow-mo replays confirmed the ball had indeed brushed Neser’s foot; but confidence they’d broken through with a key wicket vanished when ball-tracker found it had still head the Australian nightwatchman outside the line.
Stokes put his hands to his head in disbelief, with several teammates appearing dejected as the final review was spurned, leaving England at the mercy of the umpires’ decisions for the remainder of the match.
“Can’t believe it. Cannot believe it. No reviews left with eight wickets to take,” former England great Stuart Broad said on Channel 7.
“Fair enough review though – I know obviously it’s been proven outside the line, but there’s no way they could have known that.”
Head’s clean sweep sees him join rare club
Travis Head’s third century of the Ashes summer hasn’t just put Australia in a strong position early on Day 3 at the SCG – it also saw the cult hero join an exclusive club including a handful of greats of the game.
Resuming on 91 not out, Head recovered from a nervous start featuring several plays and misses to quickly find his feet, crunching Ben Stokes through the covers to bring up a 12th Test century in style.
The milestone was Head’s fifth hundred against England, and should see him vie closely with Mitchell Starc for player of the series honours come the end of the Test.
But having previously never scored a Test or first-class century at the SCG, reaching three figures also saw him become just the fifth player to ton up at seven different Australian venues.
The 32-year old has four centuries at home ground the Adelaide Oval and two at the Gabba, with Sydney’s achievement ensuring a clean sweep of the three other major venues in Perth’s Optus Stadium and the MCG; while he has also reached the milestone in one-off Tests in Hobart (during the 2021/22 Ashes) and Canberra’s Manuka Oval (during a 2018/19 series against Sri Lanka).
Just four other Australians can match Test centuries at seven venues – Steve Waugh, Justin Langer, Matthew Hayden and Steve Waugh – while Head can set a new record if he plays and reaches three figures in August’s Test series against Bangladesh, with Tests set to be played in Mackay and an undetermined northern venue.
If that match is played in Darwin, as has been mooted, Head could become the first Australian to score a Test century in all eight states and territories.
However, shortly after bringing up three figures, Head had a dose of luck, with Will Jacks dropping a simple catch in the deep.
With the South Australian’s pull shot going straight to him at deep mid-wicket, Jacks took his eyes off the ball at the worst possible time to ensure his feet wouldn’t touch the boundary rope, in the process fluffing the chance.
“Oh no! Oh no!” cried former England captain Michael Vaughan on Fox Cricket.
“It’s Will Jacks, an easy one – the tactic nearly works straight away!”
“You pay good money to take these. You shouldn’t be dropping them,” added Kerry O’Keeffe.
‘Don’t need three’: Broad lifts lid on Stokes-Marnus exchange as match referee makes call
Ben Stokes has avoided sanction from match referee Jeff Crowe for his run-in with Marnus Labuschagne late on Day 2 in Sydney.
The pair clashed mid-pitch at the end of a Stokes over in the final session, with the England captain telling Labuschagne to ‘shut up, you gimp’ and holding up three fingers, before putting an arm around his shoulders to hear Labuschagne’s response.
It was later confirmed that Stokes had been frustrated over the Australian distracting him by doing some mid-pitch gardening while he was running in to bowl; while on Channel 7, former England great Stuart Broad said Stokes had also taken umbrage with Labuschagne’s verbals.
“Marnus was saying ‘oh that’s going down leg’, ‘or ‘that’s four runs.’ He [Stokes] was saying, ‘we’ve got two umpires out here, we don’t need three’,” Broad said.
“It was all quite polite, but what happens is it got Marnus Labuschagne out of his bubble, and that’s a plan of England’s.”
Stokes would soon have the last laugh, with Labuschagne edging him into the slips cordon for 48 shortly after.
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