Marsh brothers put Australia on top

In a big-stage reprisal of so many boyhood backyard matches, brothers Shaun and Mitchell Marsh took the sword to a dispirited England late today as the final Magellan Ashes Test slipped further from the tourists' grasp.

After Usman Khawaja dominated the first two sessions to post his maiden Ashes century and come within an elegant boundary of his highest Test score, the brothers Marsh took to a tiring England attack in a brutal fifth-wicket stand that will resume tomorrow having already yielded 104.

At a rate hitherto unseen in this match, the siblings' century stand arriving from 151 balls as older brother Shaun ended the day within two runs of his second hundred of the series and the pair relived their days playing pretend Ashes Tests on their family's lawn tennis court in Perth.

As a consequence, Australia will head into day four on which Sydney temperatures are forecast to climb past 40C at 4-479 with a lead of 133 and England's bowlers already having spent 10 hours and 44 minutes in the field at the end of a winless Test campaign to date.

The small solace England can extract from another soul-destroying day is that they denied Australia's inexhaustible run robot Steve Smith from a century that would have seen him take a place alongside his nation's foremost player Don Bradman with four tons in a single Ashes series.

When Smith was dismissed for 83, sending a soft return catch to Moeen Ali to become the spinner's fourth wicket in almost five Tests, England remained 72 runs ahead and with game notionally in the balance.

But as has been the theme of the summer where the clutch moments have been either seized by the hosts or fumbled by the visitors, Khawaja powered on to 171 and the gap between the teams widened with each passing over.

England's inability to take more than two wickets in a full day's play was compounded by the fact they found themselves on the rough end of the DRS process several times today.

But if the story of the series is to be distilled to a single premise, it resides in Australia's capacity to find at least one batter per Test capable of posting a sizeable total with eight individual centuries scored while England have produced three.

In adding his name to that list today, Khawaja has inked his place for the pivotal No.3 role in the upcoming four-Test series in South Africa, and quite likely for a far longer tenure than that.

It's difficult to imagine a greater contrast in cricket demeanour than Khawaja and his captain, the pair that resumed this morning with Australia 153 runs adrift of England's and almost as far from a position of dominance.

Khawaja's velvet skills can create the illusion of laziness – although teammates will attest that early morning is not his preferred hour – while Smith freely admits he's lucky to sleep more than a few hours each night yet remains a twitching, fidgeting study of perpetual motion.

Which perhaps explains why Khawaja seemed a picture of serenity this morning despite ending the previous day nine runs short of a cherished century that would quieten the doubters who were again starting to find voice given he entered this Test with a series average of 27.

And mark his arrival in Ashes cricket, seven years after he began his Test journey against Australia's historic rival at the same ground.

While Smith bunted balls in the SCG practice nets for more than 20 minutes prior to play resuming, Khawaja was the last of his team to engage in some batting practice and prepared for his upcoming contest with England leg-spinner Mason Crane by briefly facing David Warner's inexpert leggies.

True to character, Smith was fastest out of the blocks and progressed his total from 44 to a half-century before Khawaja had got himself going.

However, after collecting a couple of singles and playing out a maiden against Moeen Ali, Khawaja received a gift from the England off-spinner that he pounced upon to find the boundary at backward point and lift himself within two runs of his milestone.

That moment arrived in Moeen's over courtesy of a similarly short, wide offering that the left-hander sliced into an off-side gap before raising his arms to the sky and acknowledging the ovation.

Image Id: 985AEA1748D645A68CBDB41B79F93FCB Image Caption: Usman Khawaja celebrates a maiden Ashes ton // Getty

He then engaged in a prolonged hug with Smith, who spoke earnestly to his batting partner perhaps exhorting him to a much bigger score with the promise of an equally productive batting partnership.

While Khawaja held up his end of the bargain, Smith's initial scurry was soon slowed as he added 21 from the next 19 overs until – in trying to manufacture a scoring shot from a flighted off-break – he chipped a sharp, low catch back at Moeen which the stunned bowler accepted near his toes.

Smith failed to hide his annoyance as he stalked from the field, as if scoring 83 in a Test innings translated to failure so bountiful has been his batting form this summer, and he cursed and muttered and shook his head and gesticulated as to the shot he should have played all the way to the boundary.

He would barely have tossed his batting gear into the formless pile he maintains in his corner of the team dressing room than the England fans were in voice again, believing they had claimed the scalp of Khawaja for the addition of just two more runs.

With 132 to his name, Khawaja stretched forward to a hard-spun leg-break from debutant Mason Crane with bat tucked behind front pad and despite the subterfuge of the ball looping back to the bowler England's shout was for lbw.

Unfortunately for Crane, in his 22nd over and still searching for his first Test wicket, the review that his captain Joe Root eventually called for went no further than confirmation the 20-year-old had overstepped and had therefore produced an illegal delivery.

Which, upon further investigation, was revealed to be spinning back so far from outside Khawaja's off stump it would have clipped the bails, if only it had been a legitimate ball.

At that point, Australia were still 70 runs in deficit and with two fresh batters at the crease just minutes before lunch would not have dined comfortably.

Further heartache awaited England's bowlers as they toiled towards a third new ball when Shaun Marsh (on 22) was adjudged by umpire Kumar Dharmasena to have tickled a catch behind from the gentle off-spin of Root who was granting his frontline bowlers a break.

Marsh was unconvinced he had hit it, but took some time before calling for the DRS process to be invoked, which failed to turn up any evidence of an edge and 11 overs later he was soaking up applause, his half-century arriving from 121 balls faced.

By tea, Khawaja had pushed his score out to 166 and was eyeing his career-best 174 (against New Zealand in Brisbane two summers ago) until he achieved history of an altogether different kind.

On 171, he became Crane's inaugural Test when he jumped from his crease to fend away a delivery from wide outside off stump only to find it elude his bat and his weary body – having spent more than eight and a half hours at the wicket – unable to reverse quickly enough to avoid being stumped.

Once again, England believed the removal of one batting obstacle had immediately prised loose a second when Mitchell Marsh aimed a drive at Crane only to find the ball land in the hands of Root at slip.

Marsh stood his ground amid mutterings about similarities with Stuart Broad's now infamous edge to slip at Trent Bridge in 2013 as England once more called upon the third umpire to adjudicate.

But unlike the Broad case where he was exonerated in the face of compelling evidence, India's S Ravi found that the deviation in the Marsh matter could be explained by Crane's vigorous leg-spin while the accompanying noise was nothing more sinister that bat slamming into pitch.

The day's final indignity came when Mitchell Marsh was finally given out lbw in the final overs when Tom Curran gained enough reverse swing to defeat the all-rounder's inside edge and umpire Joel Wilson ruled him lbw.

Only for Marsh's last-second review to suggest a noise that umpire Ravi interpreted as an inside edge and sufficient therefore to overturn the decision, which was later shown to be missing leg stump anyway.

2017-18 International Fixtures

Magellan Ashes Series

Australia Test squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner (vc), Ashton Agar, Cameron Bancroft, Usman Khawaja, Peter Handscomb, Shaun Marsh, Mitchell Marsh, Tim Paine (wk), Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood, Jackson Bird.

England Test squad: Joe Root (c), James Anderson (vc), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Jake Ball, Gary Ballance, Stuart Broad, Alastair Cook, Mason Crane, Tom Curran, Ben Foakes, Dawid Malan, Craig Overton, Ben Stokes, Mark Stoneman, James Vince, Chris Woakes.

First Test Australia won by 10 wickets. Scorecard

Second Test Australia won by 120 runs (Day-Night). Scorecard

Third Test Australia won by an innings and 41 runs. Scorecard

Fourth Test Match drawn. Scorecard

Fifth Test SCG, January 4-8 (Pink Test). Tickets

Gillette ODI Series v England

First ODI MCG, January 14. Tickets

Second ODI Gabba, January 19. Tickets

Third ODI SCG, January 21. Tickets

Fourth ODI Adelaide Oval, January 26. Tickets

Fifth ODI Perth Stadium, January 28. Tickets

Prime Minister's XI

PM's XI v England Manuka Oval, February 2. Tickets

Gillette T20 trans-Tasman Tri-Series

First T20I Australia v NZ, SCG, February 3. Tickets

Second T20I – Australia v England, Blundstone Arena, February 7. Tickets

Third T20I – Australia v England, MCG, February 10. Tickets

Fourth T20I – NZ v England, Wellington, February 14

Fifth T20I – NZ v Australia, Eden Park, February 16

Sixth T20I – NZ v England, Seddon Park, February 18

Final – TBC, Eden Park, February 21