Ashes | Sensational Smith ton backs up Head heroics to leave England on edge on Day 3 at SCG

Resuming from an overnight score of 166/2 in pursuit of England's first innings total of 384, Australia were faced early with an excellent spell from seam bowling from the tourists as they extracted extravagant seam movement of the deck to have Travis Head and nightwatchman Michael Neser in a fix. However, the duo fared well to survive as Head brought up his third century of the series in the process, before cashing in against some loose bowling from Matthew Potts to seize moment back with aplomb. The tourists were handed a way back when Head on 121 pulled one straight down deep midwicket's throat, only for Will Jacks to let dop an absolute sitter. The spell of play gave Neser the confidence to strike some boundaries of his own, and their partnership had bludgeoned to 72 when Brydon Carse finally got Neser to nick behind for a marathon 24. Nevertheless, Head showed little signs of slowing down, bringing up his seventh 150-plus score in Tests at quicker than run-a-ball, as Australia headed into Lunch in a brilliant position of 281/3.

The break brought major relief to the tourists as within three overs of resumption Head missed an attempted sweep against Jacob Bethell and walked off LBW for 163, bringing the retiring Usman Khawaja to the crease. The veteran dug in as usual while Smith found scary rhythm at the other end, bringing up a half-century soon after England opted for the second new ball as soon as it became available. However, just as the lead was cut to under 150, Carse pinned Khawaja plumb to send him walking for 17, bringing in Alex Carey. The keeper-batter made a statement straight away with a crackling boundary on his second delivery, and added two more in quick succession before flicking one straight to leg slip to depart for 16at the stroke of Tea, the score at the break 377/6.

The misery continued to compound for the English as Cameron Green got off to a start too, joining an incredibly fluent-looking Smith to stitch together another frustrating stand for the visitors. The partnership raced to 71 as Australua surged into the lead and seemed to have no end in sight when Green once again spurned all the hard work with an inexplicable heave off Carse, duly departing for 37. Smith brought up a 13th Ashes ton a couple of overs later to allay some nerves, and Beau Webster added to the joy by looking comfortable at the crease, the duo adding 81 unbeaten runs to take the side through to Stumps at 518/7, with Smith on 129 and Webster on 42.

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Lead!

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