Full five day house on song filled by the joys of both Australia and England at the SCG where the wet weather was threatening at first but luckily the show went on along with the ground painted pink annually for Breast Cancer fundraising research involving the McGrath Foundation.
Both teams were side-by-side for every run and battle rewarded with the bat as if it was a double-points race before the final day’s shootout meant there can only one winner to close out a well-scripted 2025/26 Ashes Series book.
Make sure you check out Sports Benches for your GH weekly recap content when it comes to something scripted in the soap opera world plus sports still goes on a bit longer this summer.
Day 1 to 2, England 211/3 (later all out 381) and Australia 166/2
First of all, advantage England following their winning toss and a greater timing to bat out this time.
Layers of runs were built along with a guaranteed hundred by Joe Root.
Also nice to see Harry Brook continue his consistent batting numbers now has a half-century before he was run down for 83.
Now looking at the Aussies, the only decent bowling performance was quick all-rounder Michael Neser, who never looked out of place since he came back in for the injured Pat Cummins. Besides, field of play has been so dire for the most part that spreads to some of our top-order batting, particularly Marnus Labuschagne.
Yes, he did prove a point with the bat No.3 while he can also bowl okay a bit. But that nothing cover shot straight to Jacob Bethell at slip? He should stick to just being the 12th man where his courageous catches stood out better.
Luckily, there’s always another South Australian being our saviour: Travis Head with his Trav-Ball swashbuckling buzz.
He may have a patch of form sometimes owning to an inconsistent Aussie rhythm but his class is always permanent and he’s currently closer to 100.
Day 3-4, Australia 518/7 (later to 567) and England 302/8
Fortunately, no rain came back while we’ve witnessed more batting brilliance off by both teams.
Australia continued to bat long and hard with not one but two top order batters getting their own 100s — despite their middle session shortfall after Lunch.
There was Head (161) first up and later Steve Smith (128) – Love Smudge’s tennis racket shot by the way!!
Can’t believe the return of Beau Webster always also proved to be a hit keeping Australia’s innings alive going into Day 4 and he too scored a brilliant half-century for 71 even at No.9.
Then England batted again Australia were all out for 467 with some early shortfalls but Jacob Bethell stood tall at the crease in the test of time as if he was thrown at the deep end for a stage audition.
He sure future-proofed England’s top-order who smashes fearlessly across the park en route towards his first ever Test 100, which is also his first ever first-class hundred even if it’s not at County level yet.
England better improve the rest though like a better opener for Zak Crawley plus a stronger quicks unit around Josh Tongue.
In the meantime, that good momentum unfortunately were knocked over by that direct hit (run out); and a quick breakthrough from Webster on Ben Stokes whose nothing cut shot landed straight to Smudge at slip. Thought Beau would bowl mediums at best but always not a bad spinner where he first honed his craft until the start of this decade (2020s).
A perfect Aussie finishing dent to England’s 2nd innings would have been a great sign off for Day 4 but it’s getting closer now as England hold a 119 run lead.
Day 5, the final stretch to finish off the 2025/26 Ashes Series
England with thanks to Bethell held on bit longer but still barely enough to reverse that brain fade going back to yesterday afternoon’s session. They were all out for 342 which sets up 160 for the Aussies with a clean eye towards the win.
Now Australia may have some stumbles along the way including Usman Khawaja on his final Test match after he came in & out for a long time and back again regularly in recent years. It would be a great time now for the Aussies to future proof their line-up all across their XI if they really want to dominate left, right & centre.
But, winning runs always the No.1 target to get over the line on a high & once again, a South Australian has done it this time with wicket-keeper Alex Carey by five wickets.
So yeah, definitely a South Australian getting my player of the series honours — maybe a shared one between Travis Head & Alex Carey.
It’s been great fun covering Test Cricket as always as thank you England whose improvements came after Australia retained the Urn once again by 4-1.
Stick around for a bit more summer sports series content with the Australian Open Tennis at Melbourne Park from Sunday, January 18 to February 2.
