Australia vs England, Ashes fifth Test Day Two live from the SCG

Steve Smith has reached another career milestone, becoming the third fastest player to score 6000 Test runs.

Australian captain Steve Smith calls for batting partner Usman Khawaja not to run. Picture: AAP

That concludes our live coverage of the final Test in the Australia v England Ashes series live from the Sydney Cricket Ground. Here’s how it played out.

5.45pm: Stumps

Australia captain/run machine Steve Smith has reached another career milestone, becoming the third fastest player to score 6000 Test runs.

Smith is unbeaten on 44 at stumps on day two of the fifth Ashes Test as Australia begins to take control. Smith has reached the 6,000 milestone in his 61st Test. Only Don Bradman and Garfield Sobers took fewer Tests, 45 and 54 respectively. Replying to England’s 346,

Australia is 2-193 at the close of play on day three — a deficit of 153 runs — with Usman Khawaja on 91.

Steve Smith has finished unbeaten at stumps. Picture: Brett Costello

5.15pm: Here’s a fun fact:

Over 10% of Steve Smith's career runs have been scored in this Ashes series. #Ashes

— The Cricket Prof. (@CricProf) January 5, 2018

Steve Smith brings ups 6000 runs in Test cricket! What a player #MagellanMilestones pic.twitter.com/PWu62K6DW7

— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) January 5, 2018

4.50pm: Smith reaches 6000

Steve Smith has reached another career milestone, becoming the third fastest player to score 6000 Test runs. Smith has moved to 30 not out at the SCG as Australia takes control of the fifth Ashes Test. Smith has reached the 6,000 milestone in his 61st Test. Only Don Bradman and Garfield Sobers took fewer Tests, 45 and 54 respectively. Replying to England’s 346, Australia is 2-159... with Usman Khawaja on 71.

Over 10% of Steve Smith's career runs have been scored in this Ashes series. #Ashes

— The Cricket Prof. (@CricProf) January 5, 2018

4.20pm: Time for a song

The Richies in full voice for 'day choo' at the SCG! #MastercardMoment#Ashes @MastercardAU pic.twitter.com/55eAoBh5YZ

— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) January 5, 2018

4.10pm: Matching up to Smith

Match-ups are talked about in limited overs cricket but in Test cricket a match-up of SLA Spin v Steve Smith would be a big positive for the bowling team. #Ashes pic.twitter.com/eSkkOmKab8

— The Cricket Prof. (@CricProf) January 5, 2018

3.14pm: Captain at the crease

Dave Warner has rescued Australia from a disastrous start but fallen for 56 on day two of the fifth Ashes Test. The hosts were in all sorts of trouble at 1-1 after opener Cam Bancroft fell for a duck ...before Warner and Usman Khawaja mounted a 85-run partnership. Warner tickled a catch to wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow from the bowling of James Anderson just when he appeared set to go on to a more formidable score. Australia is 2-96 at tea with Khawaja on 36 and captain Steve Smith on three.

3.10pm: Wicket

Dave Warner out for 56, bowled James Anderson, caught Bairstow.

2.46pm: Fifty for Warner

FIFTY! Warner collects a single to bring up another half-century. Australia 1-79: https://t.co/vhFwlbdpM8 #Ashes pic.twitter.com/SdIQIUcvy9

— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) January 5, 2018

2.07pm: Disaster recovery

Australia has recovered from a disastrous start to its first innings in the fifth Ashes Test at the SCG. Opener Cam Bancroft was dismissed for a duck but Dave Warner and Usman Khawaja are approaching a 50-run partnership in ideal batting conditions at the SCG. Warner has moved to 32 and Khawaja is 16 after Bancroft was bowled by England paceman Stuart Broad for nought. Earlier today, England was dismissed for 346 as Pat Cummins finished with four wickets.

1.05pm: Duck to begin with

Australia has made a disastrous start to its first innings of the fifth Ashes Test at the SCG. Opener Cam Bancroft has been dismissed for a duck, clean bowled for Stuart Broad to continue questions about whether he’s Australia’s best long-term opening option. After England made a mediocre 346, Australia is in trouble at 1-4 with Dave Warner on three and Usman Khawaja - another Australian batsman under pressure to perform - on one.

Cameron Bancroft. Picture: Getty Images

12.42pm In praise of the liquid lunch

12.30pm Let’s all drink to Bob Hawke

Bob Hawke has done it again! Not bad for an 88-year-old 🍺🍺🍺 pic.twitter.com/4QArUGgUeR

— telegraph_sport (@telegraph_sport) January 5, 2018

12.28pm England all out for 346

Australia has dismissed England for 346 at the SCG. Lunch is being taken on day two of the fifth Ashes Test. The tourists will be disappointed to fall short of 350 on a good batting strip after some decent resistance this morning. Tom Curran made 39, Stuart Broad slogged 31 and Moeen Ali contributed 30 as the tail wagged but when debutant Mason Crane was run out for four, England had still fallen short of a par score. Pat Cummins was the pick of the Australian bowlers, finishing with 4-80 in perfect batting conditions.

12.18pm Lyon lures Broad to his doom

Nathan Lyon strikes, as Broad skies a sitter, bringing bunny Jimmy Anderson creasewards. That followed Pat Cummins taking his fourth wicket of the fifth Ashes Test, leaving England struggling to reach a first-innings total of 350 on day two at the SCG. Cummins had England debutant Tom Curran caught at short leg by Cam Bancroft for 39. The tourists are 9/346 with another player making his first Test appearance, leg-spinner Mason Crane, on

4 and Anderson yet to get off the mark. Cummins has hit speeds of 146km/h and has

the figures of 4-75 from 23 overs.

Legends collide at the SCG as Warnie meets Hawkie, with the latter getting ready for his annual SCG beer ‘down in one’. Picture: Getty Images

12.11pm Bob murders a beer

Another SCG tradition is about to unfold as the cameras swing to former PM Bob Hawke in the stands and he does his trademark open-throated skol. Cue the Bob Hawke Drinking Song.

12.02pm Cummins does for Curran

Wicket! Cummins strikes again, picking up Tom Curran, who was looking dangerous on 39. It’s 8/335 as Mason Crane comes to the crease and gets straight off the mark with a single.

11.50am Pressure eases for Poms

Broad and Curran are rollicking along, racking up fours at will as the score shoots up to 7/324.

11.41am Poms pass 300

Stuart Broad skies the ball off a Mitchell Marsh delivery, but it drops tantalisingly short of the boundary fieldsman and that brings up England’s 300.

11.32am Cummins snares Ali

Wicket! Cummins does indeed make amends for his dropped shocker, picking up the wicket of Moeen Ali, who was sitting on 30 at the time. It couldn’t have come soon enough, after two embarrassing catches dropped saw Australia take the foot off the throat of England at the SCG. Pat Cummins spilled a sitter at mid-off and then Josh Hazlewood dropped an equally easy catch that ballooned straight to him.

11.25am Shanes vs Richies

Day one was the Day of the Shanes. Day two at the SCG is the Day of the Richies. Yesterday, as has become tradition, dozens of dudes in blond shaggy Shane Warne wigs, chunky gold chains and optional botox cheered, beered and ‘Shaned’ through the day’s play. Today, a sea of grey-bobbed, beige-jacketed Richie Benaud clones stretched into the upper reaches of the stand, doubtless dispensing dry bon mots and arcane cricketing wisdom with each delivery bowled.

11.17am Breaking bad

It’s drinks, as the Gatorade truck rolls onto the field looking like a bright orange cruise missile launcher. Kim Jong-un could pick up some tips here if he follows the cricket.

11.09am Hero to zero

Pat Cummins drops an absolute sitter at mid-on. That is a bad fumble from the man who enjoyed first day success in his home ground Test debut yesterday. He has a chance to atone, as Smith brings him straight into the attack. He almost does, as Ali bobbles his first delivery skyward and another sitter goes straight through Aussie fingers. Farcical stuff.

11.03am Some short stuff

Hazlewood serves up some sweet chin music to Curran, who hooks wildly and is lucky it lands safely between fielders.

10.46am Captain fantastic’s screamer

Wow, what a catch from Aussie skipper Steve Smith! https://t.co/vhFwlbdpM8 #Ashes pic.twitter.com/c0hoAucGeD

— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) January 4, 2018

10.43am Starc strikes, Smith pounces

Australia captain Steve Smith has taken a screamer of a catch at the SCG to put his side on top of the fifth Ashes Test. England’s Dawid Malan was 62 when he thick-edged Mitchell Starc to a diving Smith, who completed the dismissal low and to his left.

Reflex catches can get no better and smith was ecstatic. Malan was England’s last recognised

batsman and his departure spells trouble for the visitors.

They’ve slumped to 6-258, with Moeen Ali on 13 and Tom Curran on 4.

10.28am Spinning wildly

A decent shout from the last ball of Nathan Lyon’s over but the umpire is unmoved. Shane Warne ascends to the commentators’ box. Could that inspire some extra tweak from Lyon’s next over?

10.08am Play underway at SCG

Play is underway at the SCG under spectacular blue skies, as the Aussies bowl two maidens in a row.

The crowd is modest in number. Australia is buoyed by its blazing finish to the opening day, when Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood took the late wickets of England dangermen Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow in two crucial moments in the final ten minutes before stumps.

England is 5-234 with Dawid Malan unbeaten on 55 and Moeen Ali on one. Any score under 350 will be viewed by England as a failure.

I can’t hear you: Australia's Nathan Lyon holds his hand to his ear as he fields in front of the Barmy Army. Picture: AAP

9.36am Lyon gets cross

Nathan Lyon tells Channel 9 it was a decent wicket for the pacemen but hard graft for himself, but he says it was a big improvement on the MCG road.

“I was trying to bowl a few more cross-seams, and I managed to get a few to bite,” he says.

“The new curos have done a pretty good job ... I’m expecting the wicket to spin a lot more as the match goes on.”

Mike Atherton 9.32am It’s as you were after England stumble

New Year’s resolutions are usually short-lived. The drinks cabinet gets a hammering soon enough. The gym membership lapses by mid-January. Those bitten-to-the-quick nails grow briefly before getting a chewing again. Even England captains find their resolutions are hard to keep.

Joe Root’s? They would not have been hard to guess at: more hundreds, maybe a double or two, fewer soft dismissals, to be a little harder on himself, and to sell himself more dearly. To bring the Yorkshireman in him to the surface, in other words, a resolution that came to relevance yesterday afternoon when he went to his fourth half-century of the series.

He looked determined to start the New Year the right way. The over after he went to 50, the Yorkshireman did indeed surface after Dawid Malan cut to point, hesitated and looked up only to see Root head down and charging to the striker’s end, with no thought for his partner’s wellbeing. Malan survived thanks to an errant throw from wicketkeeper to bowler, after both batsmen met at the same end. Read the full story here.

9.26am Discreet charm of the Barmy Army

The Barmy Army was in fine voice for day one of the Fifth Ashes Test at the SCG.

#EverywhereWeGo #Ashes pic.twitter.com/UqWwYJrg1Q

— England's Barmy Army (@TheBarmyArmy) January 4, 2018

Being Joe Root. Picture: Getty Images

Gideon Haigh 9.16am Difference between Smith and Root defines series

Before this fifth Test, Joe Root mused arithmetically that the difference between the teams during these Ashes had been Steve Smith: “Take his runs out of it and we’ve been there or thereabouts to win.”

More meaningless than obvious, or vice versa? Reminiscent certainly of that old gag about the anatomical difference between your aunt and uncle. The point might also have been more sharply made as the difference between Smith and Joe Root.

As vice-captains in 2015, the pair split nearly 1000 runs, compiling two centuries apiece, in winning causes each time. They stood for both present and future, storied careers of Ashes rivalry almost foreordained.

Thirty months, however, have changed that rivalry’s dynamic. In 2015, his team’s victory made Root the obvious recipient of the Compton-Miller medal for player of the series; this summer’s medal has surely already been sent for ­engraving with his counterpart’s name.

Peter Lalor 9.07am Seven balls make it Aussies’ day

Seven balls. The last seven balls. That was all it took for England to lose their captain, their wicketkeeper and the hard-grafted advantage they carved out on the first day at the SCG.

It was just one day in the life of Joe Root, but there have been 20 almost exactly the same and there’s at least four more to come before they are freed from the torturous colonial gulag.

A Test match was clearing its throat as stumps approached. Sure the words had got stuck there for a trio of openers, but with moments left England were on their way to making life very difficult for the Australians at the SCG.

Root’s time was at hand. The England captain said earlier he had watched Steve Smith set the example, leading his side from the front and going on to big scores.

Root pushed on past 50, as he had in Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne. He had a comfortable looking Dawid Malan at the other end and the visitors were three down as the score passed 200.

Then, as it did on all those previous occasions, it came undone. Read the full story here.