{"id":676981,"date":"2026-01-06T05:11:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T05:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/676981\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T05:11:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T05:11:19","slug":"england-seeing-red-as-pink-test-disaster-unfolds-at-the-scg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/676981\/","title":{"rendered":"England seeing red as Pink Test disaster unfolds at the SCG"},"content":{"rendered":"

England have been left seeing red on Day 3 of the Pink Test<\/a> after wasting two reviews on the nightwatchman and producing one of the Ashes\u2019 series<\/a> ugliest dropped catches.<\/p>\n

Even on a tour as tough as this summer\u2019s, few sessions have featured so many avoidable blunders for England as Tuesday morning\u2019s did.<\/p>\n

Day 3 of the Ashes series finale began evenly poised at the SCG, with Travis Head spearheading Australia\u2019s fightback after England powered to 384 \u2014 their highest total of the tour.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

But England fluffed their lines as they looked to bite back at Head, who raised his bat for a third century of the series and first at the SCG in Test cricket.<\/p>\n

Head appeared to have fallen into the same trap that snared him on 170 at Adelaide Oval as he pulled Brydon Carse\u2019s short ball to the boundary on 121 runs.<\/p>\n

English fans in the Bill O\u2019Reilly Stand had already begun lifting their arms in celebration when Will Jacks spilled the regulation chance with his hands in front of his face.<\/p>\n

The allrounder could consider himself lucky the ball didn\u2019t roll onto the boundary rope for four as it fell from his hands.<\/p>\n

By the end of the session, Head had added 41 more runs after the dropped catch, taking lunch unbeaten on 162.<\/p>\n

The commentators were stunned as the ball hit the deck.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh and it\u2019s put down … Will Jacks … how has that happened,\u201d said Alison Mitchell on Seven.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe captain cannot believe it. You\u2019d want the ground to swallow you up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simon Katich said: \u201cHe committed the cardinal sin there at the critical moment, right as ball was about to get hands, he looks at the rope.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greg Blewett said: \u201cThere is absolutely nowhere to hide. And he\u2019ll be feeling all the eyes on him at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the penultimate over of the session, Zak Crawley missed a one-handed, diving chance in the slips that could have dismissed Steve Smith on 13.<\/p>\n

A tough caught-and-bowled chance from Jacks in the final over before lunch marked England\u2019s 17th dropped catch of the series.<\/p>\n

Just as frustratingly, England squandered two of their three reviews for the innings attempting to dismiss nightwatchman Michael Neser.<\/p>\n

Neser had scored only one run when England appeared to mistake the sound of his bat swiping the wicket for an edge.<\/p>\n

Third umpire Kumar Dharmasena could find no evidence of contact between Josh Tongue\u2019s delivery and Neser\u2019s bat so the veteran medium-pacer survived.<\/p>\n

English captain Ben Stokes\u2019 body language said it all after the second DRS challenge was also unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

Stokes remonstrated with the stadium\u2019s big screens and then put his hands on his head when it was shown Carse\u2019s yorker, which had clearly struck Neser\u2019s toe, was pitching outside off-stump.<\/p>\n

The twin missteps left England without a review and eight wickets still to take, given they had blown their first challenge on an LBW shout in day two\u2019s third session.<\/p>\n

Stubborn Neser (24) finally nicked off around 11.45am, pushing Australia to 3-234.<\/p>\n

The lack of reviews came back to haunt England in the half hour before lunch when they could not review an LBW shout on Steve Smith on four runs.<\/p>\n

That might\u2019ve been for the best though, with balltracker showing the Matthew Potts delivery bouncing well high of the stumps.<\/p>\n

Former Australian coach Justin Langer was scathing of England\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you drop your catches, then all the pressure in the world you can build, changes the game,\u201d Langer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it can change the fortune of a series and a Test match.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rick Ponting said England haven\u2019t been able to do it \u201cright the way through the series\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia have dropped a lot of catches, I think six or seven they have dropped in the series, but they\u2019ve made (some half chances) as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cLabuschagne three or two brilliant ones in Adelaide and the diving outfield catch in Brisbane. We haven\u2019t seen that from England. Will Jacks once in Brisbane, but all the other half chances and the attitude thing and just being alert and having an impact on the game … we haven\u2019t seen that enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I\u2019m going to put it on Jamie Smith a lot of that because I don\u2019t think he gets them up and about enough. You need your keeper really invested and and leading the way on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Travis Head blasts another ton in 23-year Ashes first<\/p>\n

2 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Hazlewood name still playing serious role in special Test<\/p>\n

1 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England have been left seeing red on Day 3 of the Pink Test after wasting two reviews on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,1406,393,4884,388,10292,93,116343,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-676981","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-cricket","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-lifestyle","13":"tag-sponsored-content","14":"tag-sport","15":"tag-the-ashes","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115846439627736373","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}