The morning began with Stokes breathing fire and pawing at the ground. Alas, like Bumrah before him, his weary body could last no longer, and off he limped with a strained fetlock. The man has carried his battered team on his shoulders all summer, and suddenly his Trojan might had failed him. Smith and Webster continued to add thoughtful runs. Smith had quietly shelved his bizarre choreography of yesterday, which had included back-somersaults, constant vocal commentary and shouted requests for less ice-cream in the stands. But the morning turned against the home side when Tongue resumed. He has been England’s best bowler, and he caused Smith to nick behind with a superb leg-cutter. He bowled Starc with another beauty; and Jacks removed Boland first ball, leaving Webster unbeaten on 71 and still without a Test century. He deserves one.
Starc made up for things by striking in his first over. Again. Crawley failed to offer a stroke to a venomous late inswinger and was trapped in front. Perhaps he is a slow learner. Every international batsman knows about Starc’s inswinger. He failed to read the memo. Thereafter Duckett and Bethell rode their luck and reached 80 by lunch. It was sensible batting under the circumstances. The pitch is playing tricks. Green smote Bethell on the helmet with one that exploded off a length. Duckett edged Neser straight to slip where the sure hands of Smith awaited receipt. Alas for him, Green’s giant arms flashed in front of him in a diving, acrobatic attempt which spilled the catch. It was that sort of morning.
After lunch Duckett’s luck finally ran out when he chopped on to Neser. Playing with a diagonal bat on an up-and-down wicket is bound to fail sooner or later. His 42 was his highest score of the series, in which he has averaged just 20-odd despite making a great many starts. It works on docile English wickets with shorter boundaries. Not here. The selectors probably ought to have known that. Root came and went, never looking comfortable for a moment. Bowlers lift at the mere sight of the man, and he clung to the crease for 37 deliveries before the indefatigable Boland trapped him in front. His sole boundary was edged through a vacant third slip from Starc, who merely gave a rueful grin. It is his way. No disaster seems to daunt his sunny temperament.
Meanwhile Jacob Bethell appeared to be batting on a different pitch entirely, as if he were on a sunny Edgbaston bread pudding wicket. Australia offered him a good deal of chaff, especially from Green; and he cashed in as if he had not a care in the world. By tea he was on 79, and the irrepressible Brook had raced to 24. Astonishingly, England was still well in the game, only nine runs in arrears with the home side having to bat last. How Australia missed the guile and cunning of Lyon! The suporting acts, after Starc, Boland and Neser, looked decidedly threadbare. The omission of Murphy looks more and more a mistake. There is spin available. If Bethel and Jacks could turn it (they did) how much more could a specialist spinner extract? And Shaoib Bashir must be a lonely and mournful figure in the English rooms. He will never know how things might have gone.
Enter the man from Snug. The giant Tasmanian all-rounder boasts many strings to his metaphorical bow. He is a capable top-order batsman, a brilliant fielder, and a serviceable medium-pacer. On a pitch crying out for quality spin bowling, at last Smith called upon Webster’s fourth-string. He did not disappoint. Brook, on 42, was trapped in front by a vicious off-break. For reasons best known to himself, Jacks hoicked his second delivery straight to Green at Bovine Corner. Worse was to follow. During a comical over of Labuschagne bouncers, Bethell set off for a run, froze after about a third of one, and attempted to return. Smith meanwhile had managed a run-and-a-half, and was caught well short doubling back by a deadly throw from Wetherald. The wounded Stokes then laid back to a shortish off-break from Webster and hit it straight to Smith at slip.
Smith then took his 215th Test match catch with a sharp take from Carse off Boland. He is one behind Root in the pantheon of catches other than from ‘keepers. The rest are nowhere. And yet through all these calamities Bethell batted on and on. And on. At stumps he is unbeaten on 142, with only Potts and Tongue to keep him company. Almost single-handed, he has kept England still marginally in the contest. It has been a magnificent innings from a youth inexplicably kept out of the side until the Ashes were gone. The lead is 119. Australia has stumbled before in Sydney seeking a lowish total in the fourth innings. Tomorrow will reveal the final stanza.