Pat Cummins’ Aussies in bid to match Greg Chappell’s team’s SCG feat 42 years ago

Forty-two years have passed since the last time an Australian cricket team arrived at the Sydney Cricket Ground for a fifth Test match that would decide a series.

Greg Chappell narrowly misses a slips catch off England’s Ian Botham in the 1983 New Year Test at the SCG as wicketkeeper Rod Marsh looks on.

You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Give us your feedback.

You can now listen to The Australian's articles.

Forty-two years have passed since the Australian cricket team last arrived at the Sydney Cricket Ground for a fifth Test that would decide a series.

In 2025, the opponent is India; in 1983, it was old foe England, who arrived at the SCG for the New Year’s Test with the home team leading the series 2-1 – just as Pat Cummins’ men do this Friday morning.

And just as a defeat for Australia to level this year’s series would mean India retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy it won in 2023, so too Greg Chappell’s men weren’t able to afford a loss to England that would have allowed the visitors to keep the hallowed Ashes in a drawn series.

Australia, desperate to claim the trophy for the first time in 10 years, decided on Thursday not to risk selecting Mitchell Marsh who was only able to bowl a few overs in Melbourne due to a chronic ankle injury, replacing him with Beau Webster.

With fast bowler Mitchell Starc backed in despite a sore back, Australia felt it could not afford a scenario in a series-deciding match where a fast bowler broke down with no reliable fifth bowling option available as back-up. “That was definitely a factor,” Cummins said on Thursday.

Australian captain Pat Cummins on Thursday ahead of the fifth Test match between Australia and India at the SCG. Picture: AFP

Whereas Australia started this series with defeat in the first Test in Perth, the 1982-83 Australians seized control of the series, following a draw in Perth with a seven-wicket win in Brisbane and an eight-wicket win in Adelaide. But momentum swung in the MCG Boxing Day Test, remembered as one of the greatest matches in cricket history.

Needing 292 to win, Australia collapsed to 9-218 late on day four, bringing No.11 batsman Jeff Thomson to the crease to join Allan Border. The pair survived to stumps, taking the score to 255, but still needing another 37 runs on the fifth morning. Remarkably, the pair took Australia’s total to 288, within a boundary of an extraordinary victory, before Ian Botham drew an edge from Thomson’s bat and Geoff Miller took a juggling catch in the slips to hand England a famous three-run victory.

With England on a high, three days later the Sydney Test began … and Australia steadily regained the upper hand.

Border (89) and John Dyson (79) took the home side’s first innings past 300 before Geoff Lawson (3-70) routed England’s top order and Thomson (5-50) smashed through the middle and lower orders, dismissing England for 237 and giving Australia a lead of 77.

A century from Kim Hughes (137) and another Border knock (83) anchored Australia’s second innings and left England needing a record 460 for victory.

With just over a day to take 10 England wickets, Australia could only manage seven as England nightwatchman off-spinner Eddie Hemmings unexpectedly topscored with 95. But a draw was enough to secure a series victory and regain the Ashes.

Despite long-form cricket having been played at the SCG since 1882, there have only been eight deciding Sydney Tests to finish a series – and only three to close out a five-Test series – partly because the SCG Test has not always been the last in a series and even in some years wasn’t played right after New Year’s Day.

In 1963, the home side came to Sydney needing a win with the five-Test series against England locked at 1-1. That SCG Test also ended in a draw, but it was enough to retain the Ashes, as Australia had won the preceding series in England.

A year later against South Africa, the Australians were in an identical position with the five-Test series level at 1-1 – and again a draw was played out.

Australia has a win-loss record at the SCG of 61-28 with 23 draws and is unbeaten at the ground for 14 years.

In the past 30 Tests, Australia has recorded 21 wins, seven draws and only two losses, both to England, in 2003 and 2011. India has only won once at the SCG, in 1978, in 13 Tests.