Finally, a good old-fashioned Test match that goes the distance. After the two-day farce in Melbourne, Sydney produced a belter that had something for everyone, and we did see some really good performances from both sides. Although Australia seem to be on course to win the game, it has had its share of ebbs and flows that you associate with Test cricket.
I will speak about two separate efforts to prove my point. The first was the effort from Jacob Bethell in the English second innings. A real hard-fought hundred from a hugely talented youngster, it could mark the maturing of Bethell as England’s new No. 3. He looked confident as the innings progressed, and some of his shots square of the wicket were a real treat for the eyes. The way his family reacted to the hundred was evidence of what it meant to them. An Ashes hundred is always special, and when it comes in Sydney at the New Year Test, at a time when the game is on the line, it is even more special for a teenager.
With wickets falling around him, it couldn’t have been easy for Bethell to concentrate all day. Playing 250 balls against a very good Australian attack and meshing aggression with solid defence, it was a first-rate Test match innings.
The second effort I want to talk about is that of Scott Boland. Boland may not have picked up a heap of wickets, but there was one spell to Joe Root where he was making the ball talk. With movement off the pitch coupled with steep bounce, he looked unplayable. He had conceded just one run in his first ten overs, and it took a lot out of Bethell and Brook to play him out. Root, the first-innings centurion, could have been out multiple times before he finally fell prey to an umpire’s call. The Boland spell was an indication that the pitch has something in it for the bowlers, and that has been the case over all four days.
Throughout this series, we have seen games end in two or three days. We have seen the ball dominate the bat on most days, and maybe that’s why the Bethell hundred stood out. For the very same reason, the series will go down as one that yet again belonged to Travis Head. I wouldn’t be wrong in saying that Australian batting is now heavily reliant on Head giving them a start, and he is the one batter most opponents have begun to fear. Over 600 runs in the series is testimony to how Head has fared, and the pace at which he scores makes him a Virender Sehwag equivalent for Australia.
For the Ashes, a five-day Test match is a very fitting finale, whoever wins the Test in the end.
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