Head masterclass gives England the kiss of death

Sealed with a kiss, Travis Head's love for Adelaide Oval and its rowdy punters has left England on the brink of a yet another Ashes capitulation Down Under.

Ben Stokes, having pushed himself to physical and mental exhaustion, spent time off the field and was unable to bowl on day three as the series he has so desperately fought to keep within his team's grasp slipped away.

Head's hometown fans milled back out over the River Torrens and into Adelaide's city bars heaving with festive cheer talking only of their local hero's latest act of brilliance, this one standing at 142no from 196 balls, as Australia's lead grew to 356 by stumps.

The Bazball revolution came to life three years ago with a series of captivating fourth-innings run chases, but Brendon McCullum's men would now need to pull off the mother of all comebacks to stop Australia from pushing the NRMA Insurance series margin out to an urn-clinching 3-0 in the coming days.

Or play for a draw, the antithesis of what this England outfit has stood for.

The Members' stands had swollen in number as they prepared to celebrate a ton by a born-and-bred local for the second time in three days. Head did not disappoint in Adelaide’s afternoon sun, sharing spine-tingling embrace with this game's other South Australian centurion, Alex Carey, when he reached his fourth Test ton here and 11th overall.

Head endured a nervous nine-ball wait when his score was on 99, during which time Harry Brook missed the opportunity to play the ultimate party-pooper when he put down a tough diving chance in the gully off an exasperated Jofra Archer.

The 32-year-old from Tea Tree Gully then took matters into his own hands, charging Joe Root and depositing him for four over long off. He proceeded to take off his helmet and gloves, drop to his knees and kiss the drop-in pitch he now averages 87.33 on.

Head and Carey (52no from 91) walked off arm-in-arm at stumps with their partnership having reached 122 to have the Aussies sitting pretty on 4-271.

Stokes, with bat in hand, had drawn on all his reserves after his day-two act of defiance in brutal heat, helping to halve England's deficit which had stood at 158 at the beginning of play with only two wickets to play with.

With No.10 Archer showing more resilience with the bat than the bulk of his top-order teammates, the pair who had held a heated mid-pitch argument earlier in the match joined forces for England's second highest partnership of the series.

Their 106-run union kept them in the Test but England, with Australia still holding an 85-run first-innings lead when both were finally dismissed, knew they still needed their best bowling effort of the series to remain in it.

When Jake Weatherald failed to review his lbw off Brydon Carse that pitched outside leg-stump and Marnus Labuschagne was undone by some tight seam bowling, Usman Khawaja was left to pick up the pieces with the man who has essentially taken his opening spot.

Head and Khawaja's 86-run partnership effectively shut the door on England, with the 39-year-old veteran again doing a bang-up job standing in for Australia's best batter, Steve Smith.

Manipulating fields delicately while scoring a brisk pace, Khawaja had added 40 to his first-innings score of 82 when he edged a Will Jacks' delivery that was so bad even the off-spinner looked embarrassed to have taken a wicket with it.

Jacks was equally generous to Cameron Green. On a pair, the tall right-hander nudged his first-up half-volley for four but had put on only a further three runs before he edged a wide, full Josh Tongue delivery to Brook one delivery after he had missed a near identical ball.

England cycled through several plans to Head, the newest of which involved their right-arm seamers angling balls from over the wicket to a wide-of-off line with only two fielders on the leg.

Neither that, nor their standard pitch-it-up tactics with the new ball, nor their familiar short-ball barrage, nor Jacks' mostly unthreatening off-breaks worked as the maverick leftie carted 13 boundaries and two sixes.

With England resuming eight wickets down on the third morning, Australia held back their main seamers for the first hour of play, instead waiting for the second new ball becoming available after 12 overs.

It allowed Stokes and Archer to reach to build up considerable momentum and enjoy the Barmy Army support growing in volume, the pair offering a ray of hope of getting their side back into the series.

The hallmark of a famous comeback felt like it might be writ large. Here, Stokes took 159 balls to reach his fifty, the most he's ever needed. His previous slowest half-century (152 balls) came during his 2019 Headingley miracle that still gives the Australians nightmares.

Tellingly, it was Mitchell Starc (not selected for the 2019 Leeds Test) who delivered the knockout blow. Having found prodigious swing with the second new ball, the left-armer fired in a wobble-seam ball that jagged back into Stokes' off-stump.

England's talisman stamped his feet like a toddler and roared in frustration, throwing his bat in the air surely knowing the final nail in the Bazball coffin had been hammered in by Starc, who now has Stokes' wicket 12 times in Tests.

When Archer's valiant stay was ended to give Scott Boland (3-45) a third victim for the innings, England's deficit had been halved yet the herculean effort they required never materialised.

2025-26 NRMA Insurance Men's Ashes

First Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Second Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Third Test: December 17-21: Adelaide Oval, 10:30am AEDT

Fourth Test: December 26-30: MCG, Melbourne, 10:30am AEDT

Fifth Test: January 4-8: SCG, Sydney, 10:30am AEDT

Australia squad (third Test only): Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Brendan Doggett, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Jake Weatherald, Beau Webster

England squad: Ben Stokes (c), Harry Brook (vc), Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Matthew Fisher, Will Jacks, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Joe Root, Jamie Smith (wk), Josh Tongue