Joe Root entered this Ashes series without a century or Test victory on Australian soil after three failed tours.
England will return home without the urn for a fourth straight series but Root now has two tons Down Under and he could finish with back-to-back victories after his sublime 160 on day two of the fifth Test at the SCG.
The series finale is delicately placed heading into the third day with the Aussies 2-166 in reply to England’s high watermark of the series of 384.
Travis Head will resume on 91 after repeatedly sending the Kookaburra ball flying to the boundary in his 87-ball whirlwind with nightwatcher Michael Neser on one if he is able to resume his innings following a nasty blow to the forearm from what became the last ball of day two.
Marnus Labuschagne showed encouraging signs in his battle to regain form with 48 in his 105-run partnership with Head but lost his wicket late in the day after a mid-pitch confrontation with Ben Stokes.
The England skipper was furious with Labuschagne not being ready, despite being at the non-striker’s end, as he came in to bowl and after calling him a gimp, Stokes’ blow-up paid dividends when he nicked off his foe in the next over.
Australia have their noses in front but with the pitch starting to deviate more as the match wears on, a fourth-innings chase will be a tricky proposition.
If England’s bowlers continue to serve up a buffet for the local batters to feast on, the Aussies may not need two digs.
Inclement weather brought an early end to play for the second day in a row but at least this time it only meant a slight reduction of less than an over for the bumper crowd of 46,586.
Australia’s position should have been worse with Root failing to snare a sharp chance at slip and Ben Duckett’s butterfingers letting him down again when he shelled a chance from Jake Weatherald from the next delivery.
DUCKETT DROPS
— Fox Cricket (@FoxCricket) January 5, 2026
It wasn't an easy chance, but the England opener shells this chance at mid-wicket that should've been taken.
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Weatherald was on 14 at the time and only added seven more to his total but it was yet another example of England dropping chances that Australia’s fielders seem to gobble up.
Head needed just 55 deliveries to hurtle to his half-century with nine boundaries, including three from one over off Matthew Potts.
Brought in for his first match on tour after Gus Atkinson’s hamstring injury, Potts bowled like someone who was doing so from memory.
He sprayed the ball full, short and wide and Head hammered his benign seamers with trademark ferocity.
Head frustrated the visiting players as much as he thrilled the home fans with his array of typically baffling shots in which he kept finding the middle of the bat despite no footwork or unorthodox positioning at the crease.
Weatherald’s chances of keeping his spot when Australia play their next Test in August against Bangladesh are under a heavy cloud after he was trapped in front by a swinging delivery for the fourth time of his maiden Test series.
Needing a decent score to secure his spot, Weatherald was dropped twice on his way to a breezy 21, hitting four boundaries along the way.
After Potts and Brydon Carse wasted the new ball, Ben Stokes brought himself into the attack and immediately worked Weatherald over with a full, in-swinger.
Unfortunately for Weatherald, he’s been a “Temu Trav” at the top of the order, playing with a similarly cavalier mindset but not going on to make a sizeable contribution apart from his 72 in the second Test at the Gabba.
A total of 167 runs at 20.87 is not going to cut it with the selectors in their search to find a long-term partner for Head with a more cautious operator in Queensland’s Matt Renshaw shaping as a better option for the two-match Top End tussle with Bangladesh.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan said Weatherald’s pronounced crouching technique made him a sitting duck at this level.
“You look at Jake Weatherald’s head position, he just goes outside the line of off stump. So low in his stance as well,” he said on Fox Cricket.
“He’s playing across the line when it’s full. Because of that head position, England just know they can go channel, channel, nice and full and straight.
“He’s always gonna be falling over and that’s happened on a regular basis now throughout the series.
“A lot of work for Jake Weatherald to do to combat that.”
Labuschagne, who is also in need of bulk runs to re-establish his spot after a middling home summer, survived a close DRS call for LBW and battled on after a Potts delivery reared up off a good length to hit him on the thumb.
But ultimately his dismissal two runs short of a half-century means he is yet to show he is back to the world-class form which took him to the top of the batting rankings a few years ago.
Australia did well to curtail England’s scoring after the tourists started the day in a promising position at 3-211.
After threatening to throw away his innings on day one, Harry Brook coughed up a certain ton when he wafted outside off stump early in the proceedings, adding just six to his overnight total to be out for 84 to Scott Boland.
Mitchell Starc continued his stranglehold on Stokes by nicking him off before he had troubled the scorers.
But they could find no way through Root’s defences and the veteran maestro showed Brook how to turn a strong start into a daddy hundred.
Derided as “Average Joe” in Australia by The West Australian before the opening Test in Perth due to his previous modest record, Root has had the last laugh with two of the best hundreds of his career to bring his tally to 41.
After punching Michael Neser down the ground to bring up his ton, nothing changed for Root as he continued to compile runs when the bowlers gave him room and occupied the crease when his scoring options were not available.
Allrounder Cameron Green’s lacklustre series continued when he dismissed Jamie Smith off what turned out to be a no-ball and then looked on in horror as the next delivery flew off the edge between wicketkeeper Alex Carey and Beau Webster at a wide slip.
Smith went on to blaze an entertaining 46 in a 94-run stand with Root but after hooking Starc for six with arguably the shot of the day, he danced down the wicket to Labuschagne’s unseemly seamers to spoon a catch to Boland, adding to the long list of unnecessary Bazball dismissals this summer in which England have gifted momentum back to Australia.
The home side said thank you very much with Will Jacks (27) and Brydon Carse (one) departing before Root finally fell to the 242nd delivery he faced when he offered up a return catch to Neser who athletically latched onto the chance.
Josh Tongue followed two balls later as England lost their final five wickets for 61 on the back of Smith’s brain explosion.
Irrespective of the result of this match, when the ECB conduct their post mortem into what went wrong in their failed Ashes campaign, all they need to do is compile a clip of their many reckless shots which have given the Australian bowlers more wickets than they would have otherwise earned.
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