Smith, Head brilliance puts England in the dust

Steve Smith's claim to be the 'best since the Don' grew stronger as Australia's most eccentric cricketer joined Travis Head in tonning up and quelling England's hopes of salvaging anything further from their Ashes tour.

A deplorable opening session from the visitors that saw Head dropped three times, Smith once, Head let off on a run-out chance and Ben Stokes burn his final two reviews on a nightwatch all proved telling in the Aussies reaching 7-518 by stumps and holding a 134-run first-innings lead.

Smith, granted a dream platform of walking to the crease against a 55-over old ball, surged to his 13th Ashes hundred and went past Jack Hobbs' mark of 12 tons while also eclipsing his tally of 3,636 Ashes runs.

Only Donald Bradman now has more hundreds (19) and runs (5,028) in the rivalry's 149-year history than Smith (13 centuries and 3,682 runs for his career against England).

Every Smith oddity came to the fore over the course of his six hours at the crease. The 36-year-old complained of SCG security guards' inability to stop patrons walking behind the sightscreen, loudly admonished himself for failing to put away a Jacob Bethell "throw-down", while flamboyantly signalling a wide off a Matthew Potts bouncer. 

Smith had reached 129no by the close of play, with Beau Webster standing firm on 42no in the allrounder’s first Test of the series.

Their 81-run unbroken stand came after Head earlier added 72 to his overnight tally of 91no, extravagantly celebrating becoming the second Australia opener this century (after Matthew Hayden) to score three hundreds in an Ashes series.

England's inability to remove Head in his 324-minute salvo, despite him taking an increasingly cavalier approach as the second new ball neared, delayed the entry of more vulnerable middle-order players.

The most egregious missed chance was Will Jacks' fumble on the square-leg boundary, with the allrounder glancing at the pink Toblerone like a cook checking on boiling potatoes right as the gilt-edged opportunity from Head arrived on his chest.

It was a kick in the teeth for Brydon Carse, whose eliciting of a Head miscue underlined his wicket-taking knack in spite of his profligacy. The paceman accounted for obdurate nightwatch Michael Neser (for a 90-ball 24), Usman Khawaja (for 17 in what may be his final Test innings) and a furious Cameron Green (37).

But the struggles of Matthew Potts and England's lack of a frontline spinner were a drain on their efforts to curtail the home team who had the measure of a wearing SCG pitch showing some signs of variable bounce.

Potts' confidence looked shot early as Head took him apart and the Ashes debutant looked to be physically struggling to get through his action in the final session with his figures of 0-141 so far marking one of the worst wicketless spells in Ashes history.

With a crack through point off Josh Tongue, Head had swanned to his 12th Test hundred in the sixth over of the day. He wheeled his arms around before perching his helmet atop his bat handle, forming a mangled scarecrow that will live in England's nightmares.

Potts saw his first three balls of the day dispatched to the fence by Head as he attempted to follow a difficult plan to bowl well wide of the left-hander's off-stump with a 7-2 field.

England's blunders mounted further when Jacks fluffed his lines on the square-leg rope, shocking as much because of the allrounder's vast experience in T20 cricket (240 matches) which sees that type of catch frequently taken with ease.

An upright Zak Crawley then failed to get a hand on an ankle-high chance at leg-slip when Smith was on 12. Ben Duckett, after dropping a simple catch himself the previous evening, missed the stumps on a run-out attempt that would have had Head gone for 154.

That latter slotted into a catalogue of difficult chances offered up by Head. Both Carse, at deep third, and then Jacks again off his own bowling, shelled catches as the opener tired.

But the most bewildering of England's first-session blues was Stokes using two umpiring challenges on Neser, who shared in a maddening 76-run stand with Head.

England's captain wore the face of a man who'd just had his bicycle stolen when his last review, an lbw shout off Neser, was shown to be have hit him on the toe outside off-stump.

As the SCG crowd goaded England after every failed appeal henceforth, Bethell convincing Ahsan Raza that his surprise lbw shout on Head was in fact adjacent saw the South Australian finally walk after his five-and-a-half hour blitz.

The enormous ovation given to Head by the 46,161 patrons only grew louder for his replacement at the crease, Khawaja, who announced his intention to retire before the match. The 39-year-old’s hard graft in grinding 17 off 49 went unrewarded when Carse speared an in-swinging full-toss into his foot.

Alex Carey creamed three of his first five balls to the boundary before being caught at leg-slip for the third time in as many Tests, the keeper throwing back his head in annoyance at his dominant series being curtailed again in strange fashion.

His frustration paled in comparison to Green's after the tall allrounder yet again threw away a promising start when he tried to pull a Carse delivery that was too full, with Duckett hanging on to a nervy catch after initially being unsighted. 

2025-26 NRMA Insurance Men's Ashes

First Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Second Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Third Test: Australia won by 82 runs

Fourth Test: England won by four wickets

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

Australia squad (fifth Test): Steve Smith (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Brendan Doggett, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Jake Weatherald, Beau Webster

England squad: Ben Stokes (c), Harry Brook (vc), 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