Here’s Harry Brook, unbeaten on 78, speaking with Test Match Special: “We knew it was going to rain today and when we came off, we knew it was coming. We just sat and waited for it to be called off.
“It is a good wicket to bat on. We managed to rotate strike nicely and it was a nice surface to play on. Playing with Joe, your innings ticks over. He is always looking to rotate and score runs and that is part of batting. It is not just about surviving.
“It is the best pitch in this series, for sure. Australia don’t have a spinner and probably thought it would do more than it did.
“It would be nice to win this and go home 3-2. We need to stick to our processes and working towards modes of dismissal. There is no reason we cannot win this.”
Brook described the Sydney pitch as “the best in the series”
PHILIP BROWN/GETTY IMAGES
Boos echo around the ground at that news. That is not what we expected though at least Cricket Australia might be happy with the news of more play in the days to come. The match will resume at 10am local time, which is 11pm tonight in the UK.
Stay tuned for more reaction from the SCG as we have it.
Will Rogan, Sydney
Live at the SCG and it’s fair to say fans are getting quite cheesed off with the state of affairs here. It’s been bright and dry for a good while now but there’s not so much as a hint of a pitch inspection. I’d be amazed if there’s any more play today.
The umpires are being booed for standing around the pavilion and a lot of people have simply called it a day and gone home.
And they’ve just announced the day is done!
A storm cell passes over the SCG as play is suspended
DEAN LEWINS/EPA
Ban on Australians in County Championship before Ashes?
Simon Wilde, Sydney
The ECB is ready to explore ways to prevent Australia’s leading Test players preparing for an away Ashes series with stints in the County Championship.
Steve Smith, the acting Australia captain, conceded on the eve of the final Test of this series at the Sydney Cricket Ground that exposure to English conditions through the county game was the likely reason for Australia being more competitive in England than vice versa.
Smith played three four-day matches for Sussex in 2023, weeks before the most recent Ashes series in England. It is almost unheard of for England players to take part in the Sheffield Shield, Australia’s first-class red-ball competition, which has only six state teams compared with 18 county sides.
• Simon Wilde: Plan to win back Ashes may include banning Aussies from county game
How might the teams line up in 2027
Simon Wilde, Sydney
Although we had to wait 28 months between the previous Ashes series in England and this one in Australia, it will be only 18 months before the sides contest the urn again in the English summer of 2027. This may mean that while a lot of players here, mainly among the visiting side, have infuriated with their brainlessness and timidity, it could be rash to write them off.
The question about those who survive on either side is whether they will be better or worse players than they are now. Will England have adapted or evolved, and put their “learnings” to good use? What will their much trumpeted “identity” (“Bazball” to you and me) look like by then?
• Simon Wilde: The possible teams for 2027 — with cautious grounds for optimism
A good day for England so far
Simon Wilde, Sydney
We have had a fairly lengthy interruption for bad light and rain, with the players coming off at 2.55pm, 15 minutes before tea. We are still waiting for a restart more than an hour and a half later. The skies look brighter but the weather reports are mixed so it’s hard to know what chance we have of getting back on. We must be playing by 5.30pm, an hour from now, and can go until 6pm.
It has been a pretty good day for England: they won the toss for the ninth time in ten Tests, chose to bat and are currently 211 for three, almost entirely due to an unbroken partnership of 154 between the Yorkshire pair of Joe Root and Harry Brook — England’s best of the series. Root is unbeaten on 72 and Brook on 78 from 92 balls and in sight of a first Ashes hundred.
Australia’s Cameron Green shows his frustration on a day in which Australia started brightly before the pitch became more batting-friendly
PHILIP BROWN/GETTY IMAGES
Root had an ugly swing at his first delivery but since then has looked pretty comfortable on a pitch that has played few tricks. Brook has been sketchier, nearly dragging on before he had scored and top-edging a pull into the leg side on 45 that fortuitously landed between the converging fielders as Australia, stuck for a wicket, went to a short-ball plan.
Root and Brook came together with England in familiar strife at 57 for three. Ben Duckett played nicely for 27 before he was undone by a good ball from Mitchell Starc that shaped away — there was some early swing — while Zak Crawley was lbw to Michael Neser and Jacob Bethell caught behind after Scott Boland changed angle and went over the wicket to him.
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Hello and a very warm welcome at this early hour to The Times’ cricket blog for the fifth and final Test of the Ashes.
It’s been a back-and-forth morning so far and, if you’re an England fan, not a bad one — eventually. Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett and Jacob Bethell were dismissed inside the first 13 overs to leave England tottering at 57-3, but an unbeaten partnership of 154 between Joe Root and Harry Brook has pulled them back to 211-3 before rain stopped play. It is yet to be seen whether we will have more cricket today as we’ve been off for about an hour and a half and the weather doesn’t look great. We will keep you posted.