Ashes fifth Test: Australia on verge of 4-0 series win

Australia are on the verge of sealing a 4-0 Ashes series win.

Century-makers Shaun Marsh, left, and younger brother Mitchell after a momentous day at the SCG yesterday. Picture: Phil Hillyard

Almost there. Australia are on the verge of sealing a 4-0 Ashes series win and on the cusp of bedding down a team that can be locked in for a long time.

Most of the strands have come together. Yesterday Shaun and Mitchell Marsh put on 169 runs for the fifth wicket. It was significant because it the first hundred partnership by Australian siblings since the Waugh brothers did it at The Oval in 2001.

Mark and Steve both scored centuries in that innings, just as the Marsh boys did in theirs. The less demonstrative Bankstown twins did not, however, celebrate it with such comical enthusiasm.

There’s a genuine affection between the pair from Western Australia who describe themselves as “best mates”, but it almost led to their downfall.

Shaun was so delighted when Mitch brought up the second hundred of his Test career that he stopped halfway through a second run to embrace his kin and was almost run out.

The crowd erupted with laughter and the pair embraced again after seeking permission to leave their crease.

“That was my fault, emotions sort of got the better of me,” Shaun said later. “I just wanted to give him the hug, I saw him starting to celebrate and lost all concept of where the ball was and what was happening with the ball, then he pushed me off and said, ‘you better get to the other end’.”

It was a scene as sentimental as the one on the previous day when Usman Khawaja raised his bat to celebrate his first century at the SCG. The batsman spent the first years of his life in Australia sharing a small flat with his immigrant family within walking distance of the ground. He and his older brother would hang around the gates at tea in a Test in the hope of gaining free entry for the last session. He played all his early cricket at the SCG, but now calls the Gabba home. Khawaja’s mother, Fozia, wearing a pink hijab, was in the crowd for the emotional moment.

The hat-trick of centuries by Shaun, Mitch and Usman took Australia past 600 for the second time this series and allowed them to declare at 7-649 with a first-innings lead of 303.

Everybody in the top order with the exception of opener Cameron Bancroft has passed three figures in the series. Steve Smith has three centuries, the Marsh brothers two each, David Warner has one and so too Khawaja. England have just three, thanks to Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan and Alastair Cook’s mammoth innings at the MCG.

Bancroft is the odd one out and will be waiting to see if his fate is the same as that of George Bailey. The Tasmanian skipper was granted one Ashes series. He had his fun in the 5-0 clean sweep but was never invited back.

When Pat Cummins dismissed James Vince, and Nathan Lyon picked up his second wicket yesterday it completed a neat set for the Australians, with each of the team’s four bowlers now having 20 or more wickets in the series to his name.

In the 2013-14 series, Mitchell Johnson took 37 wickets. This series the quartet have shared 82 of the 84 wickets to fall and the other two were run-outs.

Comparisons are gratuitous, but no England bowler has taken 20 wickets. James Anderson (17) and Stuart Broad (11) are the side’s best-performed and it is debatable whether either will be around the next time the two sides play a Test match against each other, over there in 2019.

Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Cummins and even the veteran Lyon presumably have more years left on the clock.

The offspinner is set to cash in today and signalled his intent with a classic dismissal of Cook. The England batsman passed 12,000 Test runs but when he was on 10 played inside a slightly quicker delivery from Lyon that turned and took the off stump. The bowler’s howl of joy gave some hint of how happy he was with that one.

England assistant coach Paul Farbrace believes Lyon has been almost as important as the Australian captain in the series.

“We’ve not got away from his stranglehold,” Farbrace said. “We’ve found him very hard to rotate against and he has had a massive effect on this series, probably along with Steve Smith he has been their star performer, he’s allowed their seamers to rest but he’s always been a threat and taken important wickets throughout the series.”

If England’s batsmen struggled to keep the Australians out it was understandable. They had been in the field for 193 overs, the last 46 of them in the middle of one of the hottest Sydney days on record. Mark Stoneman preceded Cook, then James Vince and Dawid Malan followed him back to the dressing rooms as England slumped to 4-93 at the close.