Summer's end is around the bend just flying

PL observes England's undoing on the second last day of the 2025-26 Ashes

England 8-302 (Jake Bethell 142no) lead by 119 runs with one day to play.

Stuart MacGill was due to face the press in Hobart in 2008, having taken his 200th wicket for Australia in the previous match. Walking into the room, the leg-spinner spied a journalist who had crossed him earlier in his career and whispered to the media manager that he was not going to be interviewed with that man in the room. MacGill was told to suck it up; he did, the journo wrote his piece, we all wrote our pieces, everyone got on with their lives, and an unnecessary minor controversy was avoided.

Stuart Clark played in that Test match, and the pair were both at the SCG on Wednesday.

Cricket Australia’s one-day ban of the ABC radio over comments about their head of cricket and head selector had set fire to the news cycle come the fourth morning of the Sydney Test. The interview snub ensured that every media outlet sourced and repeated the comments that had so upset the administration. The ban, rescinded since, was apparently pushed up the line from the dressing room, which, if the case further highlights, just how sensitive to criticism it can get in the bunker. If they’re feeling heat in those rooms, they might want to put themselves in England’s hot tub.

If things go right for Australia, they’ll complete a 4-1 series win on the fifth day at the SCG.

When England reviews this tour and the paths it took, it might look back to the day the ECB agreed not to call any of its contracted players back from the 2025 IPL. As a result, Jacob Bethell, who’d averaged 50 batting for England in the series against New Zealand some months earlier, was left at the circus while England played a one-off Test against Zimbabwe. Ollie Pope played the game and made a big score, while other circumstances ensured that Bethell would play just one game of the county championship.

Pope then managed to keep the 22-year-old out for most of the series against India and was again favoured for the live segment of this Ashes.

How England must, with the benefit of hindsight, rue that decision. Bethell has been a revelation at first drop, and there’s something exciting about getting a look at a young batter this early in his career. Someone said soon after lunch that they were hoping that he would go on to score a hundred just so they could say they were there in his springtime.

Bethell looks like the sort of player who’ll be coming back often.

England boards the plane this week with a sack full of regrets, but at least they head toward their next Test assured that Bethell is a player of extraordinary talent. The discovery came too late to save this series, but promises better days ahead.

Bethell was dismissed for 96 in his second Test, but made no mistake at the SCG on Wednesday, keeping out a probing and relentless Australian attack on what is still a good batting wicket, but one that still offers something for the bowlers.

England have got themselves a live one, and Stuart Broad, whose face is a living social media emoji keeping Channel 7 viewers up to date with whatever misfortune England brought upon itself this series, finally had something to smile about.

“What a knock we’ve just witnessed, it’s been flawless. It’s been classy, it’s been brutal at times. Some of his stroke play has been as good as we’ve seen from anyone. Front and back foot. Navigated his way through the nineties, I can’t imagine what his heart rate would’ve been when he was on ninety-nine. Twenty-seven minutes it took him to get through. We were all saying in the back of the box, use your feet, get down the wicket and he did. Put it on the half volley, dragged it through the leg side and what a moment for him and all of his family. Tears of joy.”

If Will Jacks shed any tears on the fourth day, one assumes they were of the hot, flushed and embarrassed variety. The fielder whose inability to hold onto a straightforward chance from Travis Head in front of the Bill O’Reilly stand on day three became the batter who was dismissed second ball via a brilliant catch from Cameron Green in the same place. The irony was brutal and instructive. As has been widely observed throughout this series, England’s fielding is not up to standard and has cost it dearly.