At the Sydney Test
From the notebook of the ABC's statistician
Day 1 – Sunday
After the shambolic happenings in Melbourne a week ago, all eyes are on the SCG wicket and its curator Adam Lewis. There are dire warnings that there will be an over-reaction: For the first time, we may see a Test without a wicket falling, something like Australia 0-500 declared and 0-300 declared, England 0-501 declared and 0-300, England winning by ten wickets.
There have been 57 Tests between these ancient enemies at this storied venue, Australia winning 27 and England 22, so the visitors are not without hope. However, of the 27 Tests played here this millennium, England have only come out on top twice, so recency bias suggests they may struggle again. The fact that there there has been no five-Test series in history where a side losing the first three Tests has come back to win the last two further hinders England’s chances.
For the fourth time this series, Ben Stokes calls correctly and decides (for the third time of those four occasions) to bat. Australia’s decision not to play spinner Todd Murphy, considered a certain selection a week ago, looks a little suspect, but acting captain Steve Smith says they have been painted into this corner by the appearance of the wicket, which I take to be a bit of a backhander at the pitches prepared for Tests these days. Beau Webster, who does bowl some respectable off-breaks, comes in for Jhye Richardson, while Gus Atkinson continues his “Series I Would Rather Forget” after his MCG injury, and is replaced by Mattie Potts, like Webster a patient observer of proceedings for the first four Tests.
Predictably, I am asked by my colleagues to identify the last Australian side not to include a specialist spinner at Sydney. A manual trawl through over fifty scorecards reveals the answer: February 1888—that’s right, 1888, not 1988—insofar that we can adjudge from this distance that CTB Turner, JJ Ferris, TW Garrett and PG McShane did not bowl looping off-breaks. I also reveal that up to this Test in the current series, only fourteen per cent of deliveries have been bowled by spinners. Last time (in 2021-22), to the same point, it was 24%.
A constant theme associated with the Australian Test team in these times is its age, and a quick calculation shows that today the average age of the Eleven is 33.80 years. The ten oldest Australian Test teams all played in the 1920s, when a disturbance in Europe during the preceding decade precluded a programme nurturing developing cricketers (that is, the Sheffield Shield), and pre-war veterans had their careers extended. But, leaving that aberration aside, I find that the two oldest teams to represent Australia have played in this series—at Perth (33.86 years) and here at Sydney. It’s no great leap of logic to suggest we will see some regeneration of the Australian team over the next twelve months.
Ben Duckett starts the final Test as he started the first, clattering his way to 27 runs off 23 balls before perishing just when he looks like mounting a serious challenge to Starc and Neser. His final three balls, typically, read 4 4 W, and England are 1-35 after half an hour. The prediction of a wicketless Test lies in ruins.
Crawley and Bethell don’t linger long after Duckett’s departure, but England’s best two batters take root (so to speak), so that when an early tea is taken—you guessed it: rain—England are sailing safely at 3-211, with both Root and Brook in the seventies (that’s runs by the way, not age: the latter is my status). I am able to report to my astounded colleagues that England have already exceeded the previous highest total for the fall of their fourth wicket in this series: 177 at Adelaide.
The rain abates fairly quickly, but someone forgot to advise the umpires, who have apparently decided that if there is rain, there is to be no more play for the day, even if it stops. We are therefore annoyingly consigned to starting times half an hour earlier for the rest of the Test, as the tea score becomes the stumps score.
While we wait in some frustration, we are entertained by 18-year-old Tommy Lamb, who has made the journey from Manchester to join his parents in the Barmy Army. Without flying. He has trekked through 24 different countries and 16,000 km in 125 days by any ground means possible, survived a serious motor-bike accident in Vietnam, and arrived a little later than hoped (the Adelaide Test), but certainly in time to take in this one. Having just finished school and embarking on a “gap-year”, he is a hugely impressive young man, and we are spell-bound as he, in a wonderfully articulate manner, takes us through his journey in a memorable interview. Just remarkable.
Tommy Lamb with Darren Lehmann, Jason Gillespie and producer Ben Cameron.
Day 2 – Monday
Before the day’s proceedings commence, we conduct the annual McGilvray Medal award ceremony in front of the Members’ Stand. The late Alan McGilvray, the doyen of Australian cricket broadcasting for so many years, is represented by his grandson Angus and granddaughter Fiona as Mitchell Starc humbly accepts the medal presented by my colleague Jim Maxwell. The ABC team votes for this award, and has unanimously decided that Starc should be so honoured, his 55 wickets at 17.33 and the not insignificant 284 runs at 23.67 in calendar year 2025 putting him ahead of Alex Carey (767 runs at 47.94 and 49 dismissals behind the stumps) and Travis Head (817 runs at 40.85).
Mitchell Starc accepts the Alan McGilvray Medal for performances by Australian Test players in 2025. To his left are Angus and Fiona, Alan’s grandchildren, flanking ABC commentator Jim Maxwell.
The Alan McGilvray Medal
Root and Brook take their impressive fourth-wicket partnership to 169 before Brook edges Boland to Smith. The English record for this wicket at this ground—182 between Peter May and Colin Cowdrey in January 1959—thus remains intact.
Stokes continues his indifferent form with an 11-ball duck, but Jamie Smith again plays attractively as Root marches towards his 41stTest century (equal with Ricky Ponting). Smith on 22 has a slice of luck when he punts a no-ball from Cameron Green straight to Marnus at cover: This is only Green’s third no-ball of the series, but it has cost him a wicket.
Root does pass up the chance of setting all for himself a new record at the SCG: No Test batter has ever succumbed here for 99. Root gets to that figure with a single, but very next ball pings Michael Neser straight for a couple to move to his century. I note that Ponting, for his 41 centuries, played 168 Tests and 287 innings. For Root it is 163 Tests, 297 innings—very similar stats for two greats of the game. Only Kallis (45 centuries) and Tendulkar (51) remain for Root to overtake, if he has the hunger.
Shortly after, searching frantically for a bowler that will take an English wicket, Steve Smith hits upon the idea of giving Marnus a trundle. Our skipper Jim Maxwell goes nuts over this, and proclaims to all who are listening—and that would be millions—words to the effect that it is a travesty and shouldn’t be allowed. Marnus delivers a succession of short balls in the mid-130s that are deflected for singles, and his fourth sails over Smith’s head (Jamie’s, that is) and is called a wide. The next one is short outside off stump, and Smith discombobulates everyone by flat-batting it to Boland at mid-off. The broadcasting box dissolves in a cacophony of raucous disbelief as the batsman retreats to the sheds, not for the first time this series, with some embarrassment. Jim Maxwell, beside himself, retreats to the back of the box to recover.
The admirable Michael Neser works his way through the rest of the England batting, including Root, ninth out for 160, but not before England get to 384, their highest total in Australia since Alastair Cook took possession the MCG’s centre square in 2017, when they made 491.
I note that Mitchell Starc, with figures of 23-2-93-2, has bowled more balls and conceded more runs in a Test innings than he did in any of the 22 innings in which he bowled in 2025.
An early tea is taken before Australia mount their reply. There is some conjecture that Usman Khawaja will open the innings, in deference to the fact that this may be his last Test, but it Travis Head who marches out with Jake Weatherald to commence the innings.
The pair start brightly against Carse and Potts, with most pundits suggesting it really should have been Tongue and Stokes. The total surges to 57 in 12 overs before Weatherald falls victim to Stokes, lbw as he falls, unbalanced, to a persistent weakness on his leg-stump—the fourth time in eight dismissals in this his debut series. There are bound to be questions about his ongoing membership of this team.
Head continues on his merry way, and very merry it is, reaching 91 off 87 balls in the slightly elongated session before stumps are called. He combines with Marnus in a century partnership before the latter is out just before stumps. I note that this is only Australia’s third century stand of the series, and that Head has participated in all of three, Marnus himself two. (Carey is the other participant.)
Australia have ominously moved to 2-166 off only 34 overs by close of play, and England’s 384 is not looking quite so formidable.
Day 3 – Tuesday
Day 3 is Pink Test Day, and the ground is awash in that colour as attention is turned to memory of Jane McGrath, who passed away in 2008 from the scourge that is breast cancer. Her husband Glenn (now happily re-married) is on hand to support this charity, the McGrath Foundation, the lynchpin of which is a drive to sell 480,000 “virtual seats” at $20 a pop. Reports indicate that it fell slightly short of the target at 467,000, a wonderful return nonetheless.
Darren Lehmann and Corbin Middlemas interview Glenn McGrath about the aims and hopes of this year’s Pink Test.
The big surprise early is that Travis Head takes as many as 18 balls to move to his 12th Test century, finally clattering Josh Tongue through the covers to move to 103. Like Joe Root, he is on 99 for only one ball; these guys are clearly aware that there is a record that no-one wants there to be taken. We may have to look for a willing New Zealander next season to take up the challenge.
Mattie Potts, who had 0-58 off seven overs yesterday, is introduced into the attack straight after Head’s century, and is greeted by an astonishing assault on his fast-medium deliveries. The first three balls are all sent to the boundary, in three different directions, and at the end of the over, Head has moved from 106 to 120, and Potts now has 8-0-72-0. I announce that the most expensive analysis for a completed innings by a visitor on his first Test innings on Australian soil is Potts’ fellow-countryman, Jack Leach (7.85 rpo, Gabba, 2021-22), but in favour of Potts is the fact that this innings is not nearly complete; therefore he has a chance to redeem himself—if Stokes permits it.
Stokes does in fact allow him another over (conceding only two runs), but in the next, bowled by Josh Tongue, Head is badly dropped by Will Jacks on the boundary at deep square leg, and English heads (unlike the Australian one) drop a little further.
Michael Neser, sent in as nightwatchman last night, absorbs a total of 90 balls before he is dismissed, whereupon Steve Smith makes his entrance, promising much agony for the English team. However, they strike a major blow for their hopes shortly after when Head essays a wild larrup against Jacob Bethell, in his second over of left-arm tweakers, and is rightly given out lbw, for 163.
Head might have missed out on a “99 at the SCG” record earlier, but he has now set another one, as I announce to the masses that he is the first batter in Test history to be dismissed twice for 163, clearly a red zone for him. Mohammad Azharrudin made 163 twice, but elected to be not out on both occasions. Head’s top seven Test scores now read 175, 170, 163, 163, 161, 152 and 152, comforting data to opposition bowlers who are pretty well assured of a wicket once they let him get to around 160. Head clearly has some work ahead of him if he is to train himself to get to 200.
Head now has 600 runs for the series, only the fourth Australian so to do this millennium (Ponting, 706 v India, 2003-04; Clarke 626 v India, 2011-12; and Smith 769 v India, 2014-15, 687 v England, 2017-18 and 774 v England, 2019).
With Smith at the helm, the Australians glide through the day, adding runs at will, impervious to the admirable efforts of the English bowlers to make inroads into the wickets column. During the course of the day, Smith overtakes Jack Hobbs as the second-highest run-scorer in Ashes matches, overtaking no less a luminary than Jack Hobbs, who has 3636 runs. Given Smith’s age now, Bradman’s 5028 looks out of reach, even for him.
England’s 384 is overhauled shortly after tea, with only six wickets down, and Smith and Green in control. Green, as has often happened this series, gets himself out in the thirties when he looks like he might make 300, giving Beau Webster his first chance of the series.
By late afternoon, Smith has another Test century to his credit, his 37th, moving beyond Rahul Dravid into outright sixth on the all-time list. I note that he and Joe Root have played 37 Tests played together (on opposite sides, of course), and that Smith has made 12 centuries to Root’s six in those Tests, but more remarkably, that this Test is the first in which both have made a century.
When Smith is finally out, it is to his 19,954th ball in Test cricket—a reminder of this Test a year ago, which he completed sitting on 9999 Test runs. Only Allan Border (27,035 balls), Ricky Ponting (22,782) and Steve Waugh (22,450) lie ahead of him for Australia.
Mattie Potts bowls a number of two- and three-over spells over the course of the day, but is unable to secure the wicket that his analysis so desperately craves. I have my eye on the most expensive wicketless bowling analysis by a visitor in his first bowling innings at the SCG, which takes me back to 1951, when JJ Warr ended up with 0-142. Potts goes for 11 runs off his 25th over, taking him to 0-141, but Stokes (with one eye, surely, on Warr’s record) rests him. For the moment, Potts is safe.
Webster continues where he left off at the SCG a year ago, when he complied 57 and 39*, and by stumps, has added another 42, a useful supplement to Smith’s 129*. Australia are 7-518. There can only be one winner from here, surely.
Australia, with their consistent batting today, have manufactured no fewer than seven partnerships of fifty or more—the second most for an innings in Test history, and just one fewer than India managed at the Oval in 2007.
Day 4 – Wednesday
England suffers a major blow this morning when skipper Ben Stokes limps off, having delivered the fourth ball of the third over of the day, with what looks like a groin strain. He may not have had the impact he wanted in this series, but there is no denying the sustained energy he has applied in giving of his best.
The Australians are finally disposed of in just ten overs this morning, ending at an all-out total of 567. A quick search of the trusty database reveals this is the first occasion that a Test side has been dismissed for 567, although England did end there once against New Zealand, but with only eight wickets down. My announcement of this profound finding provokes, weirdly, considerable mirth in the broadcasting box. I do wish sometimes they would take me seriously.
Webster is the one batter who refuses to budge. He ends at 71*, taking his SCG Test average to 167.00. This, perhaps unexpectedly, is not the highest for the SCG, with Ravi Shastri (206), Matt Resnhaw (189) and Bob Barber (185) still lying ahead of him. However, Webster can be comforted by the fact that an innings of 40* next summer will secure him top spot.
183 runs behind on the first innings, England start poorly when Crawley is out in the first over of the innings, thereby finishing his series as he started it. And his tormenter once again is Mitchell Starc, who now has 26 first-over victims in his career, on this occasion winning a marginal lbw decision against the England opener. Only Jimmy Anderson, with 29 first-over dismissals in a much longer career, can top Starc’s 26.
The rest of the day can be summarised as being Australia v. Bethell, with the former working through one end of the England batting, and Bethell holding up the other. The fair-headed youngster shows a maturity beyond his years, and does not look like getting out. He faced seven balls when poised on 99, but he too decides this is a record he does not want, and hoists Webster through mid-wicket to reach a nerveless 100, to general acclaim. England’s number three position looks to be in good hands for years to come.
Much is made of the fact that this is Bethell’s first first-class century, reminding us of others whose maiden century is a Test one: Gus Atkinson, Stuart Broad and Jack Russell of England among them. Jason Gillespie proudly puffs his chest a little on hearing this, for he is on the Australian list, along with Mitchell Johnson and Ian Healy. I have seen all three in the press quarters this series.
The youth of England’s latest century-maker also deserves some extra research. Turns out that at 22 years 76 days, he is the ninth-youngest (male) English player to make his maiden Test century, with Denis Compton (20/19) leading the pack. I also note that just ahead of Bethell lies Ollie Pope (22/15), now languishing outside the favoured eleven. I actually rate Pope, and hope to see him restored to the team after a proper period consolidating his credentials.
Speaking of Webster, he saves Smith’s blushes a little today as he purveys some of his off-spin, initially deployed at the start of his Sheffield Shield career many moons ago. He takes three important wickets: Harry Brook for an effortless 42, Will Jacks two balls later when he tries an ungainly hoick over mid-wicket, and towards the end, skipper Stokes, bravely hobbling out to hold up an end. Smith, remember, had eschewed the use of a specialist spin bowler in the Australian eleven before the match started, but Webster shows clearly that the pitch is taking spin, making Smith’s judgement of his home ground highly questionable. Webster, for his part, continues to show his all-round utility to this team.
England, despite the loss of wickets at critical junctures through the day, build a lead of 119 with two wickets in hand when time is called. Bethell is still there on 142. Remarkably, there have been only two individual scores of 142* overnight in Test matches in Australia. The other was about three weeks ago at Adelaide, when Travis Head went to bed on the same score after Day 3. Given that these things happen in threes, we can expect another one in Darwin or Mackay, when Bangladesh visit in August.
Day 5 – Thursday
Bethell and Potts emerge to try to extend England’s lead to levels that might remind Australians of some of the small-target failures in our collective living memories. Surprisingly, it is Bethell who goes first, adding a dozen runs before edging Starc to Carey. Potts strikes a pair of belligerent boundaries with only Josh Tongue to support him, and Australians begin to sweat a little.
Carey’s catch to dismiss Bethell takes him to 28 victims for the series, second on the all-time list with Rod Marsh against England in 1982-83, but one behind Brad Haddin’s haul in England in 2013. With one wicket left, we wonder if the Australian bowlers can conjure up another edge for Carey to swallow.
Tongue, however, refuses to play ball (at least not in the desired direction) and holes out to Marnus to secure Starc his 31st wicket of the series—a haul not achieved since Mitchell Johnson’s 37-wicket blitz against England in 2013-14. Only Shane Warne (2001 and 2005) and Glenn McGrath (2001) of the others have reaped as many wickets in a series for Australia this millennium. Carey, meanwhile, is stranded on 28 dismissals.
Australia’s requirement to make the series 4-1 is 160 runs, a target never before set us in our Test history, so one way or the other, new ground is to be broken today. WinViz is confident at over 93% (with the draw another 3%), but the conservative side of me is not so sure. I’ve been scarred before.
Australia’s openers Head and Weatherald show commendable enthusiasm for the task, and knock off 62 runs inside 11 overs before they are parted, allaying hometown butterflies. However, Head trusts his attacking technique once too often, miscuing a wild swipe high to Carse at midwicket, while Weatherald, three hours involuntarily deflects a short ball from Tongue over the keeper’s head to Potts, running in from fine leg.
Smith, rather ironically, given his pre-match comments, is undone by a beauty from Will Jacks, the ball spinning sharply from well outside the off stump between bat and pad to take middle-and-leg. One or two butterflies return.
Usman Khawaja, playing his last Test innings, makes a nice deflection to the fine leg boundary off his second ball, but shortly after plays on to Tongue, who (rather disturbingly from an Australian point of view) now has three wickets. Uzzie departs the Test arena with 6229 runs at 42.96 for Australia, having given fine service over 15 years and five days, and ending his celebrated career where it started all those years ago.
Marnus then perishes after a fatal miscommunication with Alex Carey, run out as he forlornly dives back towards his ground once he realises Carey isn’t coming. The number of run-outs in this series has now doubled in two days, with Jamie Smith self-destructing in a very similar manner yesterday. The butterfly population has likewise doubled, for Australia are 5-121 and still need another 39.
I needn’t have worried. Mr Dependable, Alex Carey, combines with the much-maligned Cameron Green to take Australia to their target, Green cutting Carse elegantly to the boundary twice in the 30th over, and Carey delivering the final blow: a sumptuous drive through the covers, two balls into the next, to seal the victory.
And so, Australia for the fourth home Ashes series running, have won at least four matches—although unlike the previous three, England did win one themselves. The England 3-1 win of 2010-11 remains a sole triumph for them this millennium, outside of which the tally is Australia 26, England 2. The promise of a fresh, aggressive approach by the visitors under the guidance of Brendon McCullum has failed to materialise, and the soul-searching demanded by their own press may claim some personnel victims. We shall see.
For all the promise of the much-vaunted English batting, Australia has outscored them in terms of both volume and rate. Australia have gone along at 71 runs per 100 balls, England only 65, while Australia’s batting average, 33.53 is perceptibly superior to England’s 26.70. Bearing in mind that Australia was rarely at full strength, they have done well to maintain their home superiority over their traditional rivals.
From the above, one may deduce that runs were scored at a searing rate this series, and a quick analysis shows this is so. The overall run-rate for both sides, 67.7 runs per 100 balls, is around 25% higher than other Ashes series since 2000. And the rate of maidens—one every 8.25 overs—is miles behind the overall rate in the same period—one every 4.78. We clearly have been witness to an extraordinary series.
Finally, a note of commendation to the SCG curator, Adam Lewis, who has prepared a proper Test pitch for this contest, showing that it can be done, and providing a fitting finale to an absorbing series. The disappointment of Melbourne seems to have receded into the background.
For me, it is time to return home to the temperate climes of Hobart, and re-introduce myself to my long-suffering wife. Normally she would accompany me on at least one of my trips, but the scarcity of tickets for this popular series meant it wasn’t to be this time. However, the women’s Test in Perth in March remains a possibility!
Post-match and series presentations, shielded from us by the sightscreen. Isa Guha is behind there somewhere, conducting proceedings.
ABC team, Sydney 2026
Standing, left-to right: Tim Verrall, Ric Finlay, Alison Mitchell, Corbin Middlemas, Declan Byrne, Jason Gillespie, Jarrod Ryan
Seated: Ben Cameron, Darren Lehmann, Jim Maxwell, Stuart Clark, Denis Carnahan
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