England reached a position of strength on 211 for three on the first day of the fifth and final Test at Sydney before bad light and rain cut short their progress, with Joe Root and Harry Brook – who at times lived dangerously against the short ball – unbeaten on 72 and 78 respectively.
At 57 for three after Ben Stokes won his fourth toss of the series, it looked as if Australia might take charge, but the Yorkshire duo hit compiled England’s biggest stand of the winter, before the umpires took the players off at 2.55pm with exactly half the day’s 90-over allocation bowled.
Earlier, England’s top three came and went in a hurry after Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley had begun with a lively stand of 35. Duckett raced to 27 off 24 balls but fell to Mitchell Starc for the fifth time in the series when he played at one that left him – taking his Test average below 40 for the first time since the end of the New Zealand tour a year ago.
Crawley was then pinned leg-before by Michael Neser for 16, the result of a nothing shot as he aimed across the line, and Jacob Bethell looked the part until he was undone by Scott Boland’s bounce and movement outside off stump, and was caught behind for 10.
The Ashes gets political
These have been the hot-take Ashes, with ex-pros lining up to dispense their wisdom in the commentary box – especially Australians with a distaste for Bazball. But can anything have matched the opinion put forward on the first morning at Sydney in the Fox commentary box by the former prime minister John Howard? On the thorny subject of Brook, Howard – a self-confessed cricket tragic – opined that he ‘owes his country a big score’. So far, so good.
Heroes in the stands
There was barely a dry eye at the SCG 10 minutes before the start of play, as the crowd rose to acknowledge the first responders from the Bondi Beach atrocity that took place on December 14 less than three miles to the east. A group of ambulance staff, nurses and lifeguards walked through a guard of honour formed by the Australian and England teams. Also present was Ahmed Al Ahmed, his left arm still in a sling after he was wounded while disarming one of the gunmen.
One of the heroes of the Bondi Beach atrocity, Ahmed Al Ahmed was honoured at the Sydney Cricket Ground
First-responders were given a guard of honour in front of an emotional crowd on Day One
Hosts field previously unimaginable line-up
The media centre here is named in honour of Richie Benaud, whose leg-breaks brought him 248 Test wickets for Australia. What, then, would he have made of the home side’s decision to enter a Sydney Test without a frontline spinner for the first time since 1887-88? At the toss, Steve Smith said the conditions had left Australia with little option, but it still felt like sacrilege at a ground that was once the nation’s spin-bowling spiritual home.
Anyone know the answer to five down?
England head coach Brendon McCullum was ‘caught red-handed’ by Channel 7’s cameras as he passed the time during the Root-Brook stand with a book of crosswords in the SCG’s beautiful old pavilion. As he flicked between the puzzle he was working on and the back of the book, the former Australian opener and coach Justin Langer exclaimed from the commentary box: ‘You’ve got to be careful there on national TV looking up the answers! Come on, Baz – you’re better than that, my friend… Caught red-handed, Baz!’ McCullum was gloriously oblivious to the unfolding outrage.
