Smith and Marsh bat and bat and bat

In a haunting reminder of the hammer blow they dealt England in Perth four years ago, Australia has a hand on the Ashes urn after skipper Steve Smith and reborn allrounder Mitchell Marsh batted the tourists into the dust with a daunting partnership that has defined the third Magellan Ashes Test.

Having entered day three 200 runs in deficit and with seven wickets in hand, Australia ended it ascendant by 146 and with only one stumble along the way as thunderstorms forecast for tomorrow and Monday loom as a dispirited England's best hope of escaping a third consecutive defeat.

Even if the rain does come or the tourists' batting can find the resolve and productivity that Smith and Marsh exhibited in their unbroken 301-run fifth-wicket partnership, the damage done to their morale and manpower on the most one-sided day of the series to date seems destined to wield a broader impact.

As Australia's stocks boom on the back of Smith's highest-ever Test total (229no) and Marsh's maiden century which vindicated his inclusion and ultimately yielded 181no, England looked as bereft of spark as they did answers on a day in which their rivals bulldozed to 1-346 from 90 overs.

In 2013-14, Smith led the way with a century as Australia crushed Alastair Cook's team at the WACA to pave the way for an eventual 5-0 Ashes whitewash.

Such was the celebratory tone of a day that sharply contrasted the differences between the teams, Marsh's stunningly authoritative innings and the jubilant dance of triumph it spawned almost overshadowed the magnitude the Smith's epic knock.

The 28-year-old ticking off a raft of individual and collective milestones as he batted throughout the day to surpass his previous benchmark of 205 scored at Lord's in 2015, the tour to the UK in which Australia relinquished the historic trophy.

Perhaps the most telling of those records that fell today being his hundred that arrived off 138 balls, which the fastest and slowest of his 22 Test tons have come in this campaign after his epic, unbeaten century in the first Test soaked up 261 deliveries.

That rate of enterprise stood as a stark counterpoint to England's bowling today, the lack of purpose and penetration shown by their seamers compounded by news their most likely bowler in this match – two-Test greenhorn Craig Overton – has been diagnosed with a hairline fracture to his rib.

The only moment of pleasure came for England in the day's first hour, in circumstances as unlikely as they were unforeseen.

Shaun Marsh had settled nicely into his innings among familiar surrounds, lifting his score without fuss or flourish from his overnight tally of seven to 20 when he decided that Moeen Ali would be his preferred vehicle to up the tempo.

Consecutive boundaries from the England off-spinner, the second of which came courtesy of a confident shimmy down the pitch and a crisp flick to the mid-wicket fence, suggested that the older Marsh was about to bloom.

But Moeen deftly flighted his next delivery a little wider of off-stump, and it found sufficient turn from the otherwise dormant surface to catch the edge of Marsh's bat as he lent languidly forward and Joe Root snaffled the offering smartly at slip.

To have plucked a wicket so brazenly against the flow of the game might have led England to hope a collapse similar to their own a day earlier – when they lost 6-35 and their grip on the game – might be about to befall their rivals.

Six hours later and they were still waiting for the next shoe to drop.

On a pitch that offered a hint of sideways movement, in conditions that enabled the swing conventionally or reverse, England's seamers might have fancied their chances of causing the Australia pair occasional concern, if not outright problems.

But on a WACA track that played as flat as England's on-field spirit, they were fodder.

Across the first two days, England pair Dawid Malan and Jonny Bairstow had highlighted just how benign was the pitch that yielded the tourists first centuries of the series.

However, when Malan fell to frustration on the second morning Australia were able to exploit that sudden shift in momentum because they had bowlers capable of challenging the England batters through raw speed that trumped the lack of assistance coming from the surface.

It's a reason why Australia's Bupa Support Team men's coach Darren Lehmann remains a tireless advocate for 'velocity', because without a bowler capable of regularly cresting 135kph England had nothing to trouble their hosts.

Smith had shown from the day's opening over that he intended to be out in the middle when it ended.

A tickle behind square leg off James Anderson brought an initial single that lifted him to 93, then in Stuart Broad's next over he indicated that he'd seen enough to consider himself back 'in' by throwing his back leg across the crease and flaying a back-foot drive through the off-side.

His 22nd Test century was posted three overs later when he flicked Anderson masterfully through mid-wicket for three.

And amid the overt bat waving, arms raising and helmet kissing it was the subtle clenched-fist pump towards his teammates that Smith made when completing the second of those runs that broadcast his intent.

The wordless message being that the job was nowhere near done, and there was more pain to be inflicted on a foe that appeared increasingly forlorn and frustrated as Smith and then Mitchell Marsh ground them beneath their heels.

It was a measure of the confidence that Marsh brought to his latest incarnation as a Test player, despite the predictably myopic discounting of the recent batting form that underpinned his recall, that he outscored the world's top-ranked batter for much of their record stand.

Even though Smith remains in the form of his life, a run that saw him reach – during the course of this morning – 1000 runs in the current calendar year for the fourth year in succession.

Only ex-Australia Test opener Matthew Hayden has bettered that output having achieved the milestone through a five-year span from 2001-05, but the likelihood of a new record being Smith's by this time in 2019 grows with every innings he plays.

When the pair passed 100 in their festival of the fifth-wicket, Marsh was responsible for 50 of them (compared to Smith's 47) and when it topped 200 the ratio was even more disparate with the allrounder contributing 116 to the captain's 77.

But the counsel and encouragement that Smith shared with his younger partner, who so often in previous iterations as a Test player has surrendered his wicket at times when he looked to have the wherewithal to post that sizeable score, more than covered the numerical shortfall.

And if Marsh was immediately at home on a ground where his talent first shone as a teenager for Western Australia in 2009-10, then Smith might lead a one-man protest movement to retain Test cricket at the WACA such is his level of mastery on what was once a bowler's pitch.

Today's unbeaten 229 follows the 138 he posted against New Zealand in 2015 which came on top of his breakthrough maiden hundred on Australian soil at the venue during the previous Ashes summer here four years ago.

His affinity for Perth only soured by the duck that he pocketed against South Africa last year, a Test that Australia lost with those two outcomes tightly intertwined.

Prior to very part-time leg-spinner Dawid Malan (first-class bowling average 40) being tossed the ball in the final hour, the embodiment of England's desperation came when Smith was on 135 and a rare delivery from Anderson struck him on the pads as he marched across his stumps.

Despite all prima facie evidence suggesting umpire Chris Gaffaney's call of not out had to be correct, so far did the delivery seem to be sliding down leg, Root called for a video review in the clear hope it might reveal some sort of film noir plot twist.

Instead, it revealed the most predictable villain – Anderson shown to have overstepped in his delivery stride which meant the eventual reveal, in which the umpire's call would have been upheld, proved a needless anti-climax.

Indeed, the moment of greatest anxiety came for Smith leading into the day's final drinks break when, undefeated on 207 and the team total at 500, he signalled anxiously to the Australia dug out from which a plastic chair and a physiotherapist appeared at great haste.

The chair was then ferried out to the sweat-soaked captain who ripped off his right pad, rolled up his trouser leg and hurriedly re-tied and re-taped his shoe lace to his shin in keeping with the superstition that helps feed the narrative of his obsessive nature and amusement of his teammates.

If England could find a means by which they could be surreptitiously detached early in an innings, it would stand as their best – perhaps only – hope of jolting Australia's automaton skipper out of his default setting.

2017-18 International Fixtures

Magellan Ashes Series

Australia Test squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner (vc), Cameron Bancroft, Usman Khawaja, Peter Handscomb, Mitchell Marsh, Shaun 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 WACA Ground, December 14-18. Tickets

Fourth Test MCG, December 26-30. Tickets

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