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Speaker 1: Australia's cricketers as they take on the world. Hello everybody,
Speaker 1: this is The Unplayable Podcast, Day four of the Fifth
Speaker 1: Test here at the SCG and Australia. Oh, they now
Speaker 1: trail England by one hundred and nineteen runs. We've seen
Speaker 1: an amazing century to Jacob Bethel here, one hundred and
Speaker 1: forty two not out as it stands, and overall a
Speaker 1: pretty great day of Test cricket. Eleven wickets, three hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty one runs and we've got a game, folks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we do.
Speaker 3: Tentatively, it felt like the way England had some kind
Speaker 3: of mind explosions, like in the piece there, it felt
Speaker 3: like what Jacob Bethel had done a ton for the
Speaker 3: ages was going to be completely undone in.
Speaker 2: A bit of a flash.
Speaker 3: But there are one hundred and ten, one hundred and
Speaker 3: nineteen runs ahead now. Jacob Bethay sat up here in
Speaker 3: the press conference a second ago and said, if we
Speaker 3: can get it up to one eighty one ninety who knows.
Speaker 3: I tend to agree with him. But England, as I
Speaker 3: think you've pointed out, England agan need to bowlop it
Speaker 3: than they have in this game so far.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's been the story of the series. England
Speaker 1: have got themselves into strongish positions and then have relinquished that.
Speaker 1: We saw a couple more today, which we will get to.
Speaker 1: A brook Wick at Jack's Wicker of Stokes, sorry, a
Speaker 1: Smith run out, So we'll get to all those, but
Speaker 1: let's stay with Jacob Bethel because what an innings that
Speaker 1: was austraight in lasts too long today, and then Bethel's
Speaker 1: in in the first over of England's innings after Stark
Speaker 1: struck again one hundred and two hundred and thirty two balls,
Speaker 1: sixteen fourth, A lot of those high class boundaries as well,
Speaker 1: you could make a claim for many of those being
Speaker 1: the shot of the day.
Speaker 2: And he, I don't know, did he give a chance.
Speaker 1: He was pretty much chanceless, and even when he had
Speaker 1: to spend seven balls on ninety nine, he never looked
Speaker 1: like he was going to panic.
Speaker 2: He just looked.
Speaker 1: Composed, calm, and he got there with not much doubt
Speaker 1: in the.
Speaker 3: End, which is a great starting point, and I think
Speaker 3: it was four or five overs one shot away from
Speaker 3: one hundred.
Speaker 2: He got to ninety six really quickly.
Speaker 3: He got to into the nineties off some overthrows, kind
Speaker 3: of exactly what we're talking about the other to day
Speaker 3: around throwing at the stumps and the potential of creating
Speaker 3: some overthrows. But that was probably my biggest takeaway of
Speaker 3: today was this is a man who has two centuries
Speaker 3: before today against grown men.
Speaker 2: So I'm going off Cricket Archive, which is a pretty
Speaker 2: reliable source for me most of the time.
Speaker 1: So not juniors, That's right, that's what you're saying.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So there's the list I'm kind of going off.
Speaker 3: Has a bunch, you know, Barbados under fifteens versus Jamaica
Speaker 3: under fifteens, English Schools, Cricket Association, Midlands under fifteens versus
Speaker 3: North under fifteens, Warwickshire under seventeens Young Lions stuff. When
Speaker 3: he's actually played against men, there's been one hundred against
Speaker 3: the Warwickshire Fort Warwickshire second eleven against Clusters year second eleven.
Speaker 1: Okay, so not even county stuff.
Speaker 2: Well not in below county.
Speaker 3: Yeah, second eleven stuff, and then there was another under
Speaker 3: nineteenth century following that, and then he made one in
Speaker 3: a bilateral ODI against South Africa. Yet when he got
Speaker 3: to within one shot away from a century, he just
Speaker 3: kind of calmly nudged around. He got a single, he
Speaker 3: got to ninety seven, he got to ninety eight, he
Speaker 3: got to ninety nine. Stark bolt too ripping bounces at him,
Speaker 3: you know, one hundred and forty five k an hour.
Speaker 2: Yep, he got in the line of it.
Speaker 3: And then when he finally saw bow webster flight wine up,
Speaker 3: he said, I'm having a piece of that and bunted
Speaker 3: him over long on that. Just the composure he showed
Speaker 3: in that moment was extraordinary for a guy who, as
Speaker 3: we said, just hasn't got much experience in like he
Speaker 3: hasn't even done that at county level, Like he hasn't
Speaker 3: been he hasn't been dominating ODII cricket T twenty cricket. Yes,
Speaker 3: we can all see the talent, but when it got
Speaker 3: to that moment, I was watching him really cihause, I'm likeual,
Speaker 3: he's never been in this pitchure before. I guess you
Speaker 3: can you can see why the basball regimes have have
Speaker 3: fast tracked him.
Speaker 1: Yeah they love him, don't they, and heading into today
Speaker 1: averaging only twenty seven in first class cricket from twenty
Speaker 1: seven matches, So it doesn't really strike you as a
Speaker 1: player of the future. But when we saw him a
Speaker 1: bat today, it was without doubt that's six. That was
Speaker 1: a great shot. It came down the track. And then
Speaker 1: the celebration was not over the top either. It was
Speaker 1: if he was saying, like the job's not done. It
Speaker 1: was a little fist pump and a little salute to
Speaker 1: his family, and the family was shown a lot on TV.
Speaker 1: There weren't many words being spoken as he got through
Speaker 1: the nineties. And then I reckon a few tears down
Speaker 1: his father's face when he did get there. Great to see,
Speaker 1: and yeah, that's one of the things that makes test
Speaker 1: cricket special.
Speaker 2: It does.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and dad is an absolute spitting image. Apple doesn't
Speaker 3: fall far from the tree. And but yeah, he was
Speaker 3: he was really struggling. Bethel himself said I found his
Speaker 3: press conference just before really interesting. He said that he
Speaker 3: could nervous when he sees other people in the nineties,
Speaker 3: but you know, I guess like he does it in himself.
Speaker 3: He wouldn't really know because he just hasn't been in
Speaker 3: that position too much. You know. It's interesting as well,
Speaker 3: like he came out and played a season a great
Speaker 3: cricket out here, didn't get to one hundred in that either.
Speaker 3: He played, he got to the ninety nine in under
Speaker 3: twenty one game, but he never passed fifty playing in
Speaker 3: first grade in Sydney. So it's interesting. And even we
Speaker 3: asked him about him before and about Great Cricket, he said,
Speaker 3: I didn't really learn much, Like it's very different conditions
Speaker 3: to you know, what you're going to play at the
Speaker 3: next level, and it's like, well, you're an eighteen year
Speaker 3: old kid, Like what do you mean the next level?
Speaker 3: Like there was no next level at that point. But
Speaker 3: this is a it's not to be confused with arrogance,
Speaker 3: because he seems like a very humble, down to worth,
Speaker 3: modest kid. But he has clearly just been pre ordained
Speaker 3: for greater things the whole time, and it's like he's
Speaker 3: known it. It's a remarkable, remarkable story, remarkable character.
Speaker 1: He was asked as well if he had can sit
Speaker 1: it about or thought forward ahead to what he would
Speaker 1: do when he would get this one hundred, his first
Speaker 1: hundred in first class cricket, and he said it was
Speaker 1: always coming, wasn't it? So that was maybe that could
Speaker 1: be a mistaken as arrogance, but that is just a
Speaker 1: young kid with a full belief in his own ability.
Speaker 3: That was a remarkable line. That really was a remarkable line.
Speaker 3: It was like out no, it was always coming. Yeah,
Speaker 3: hang on, what do you mean who knew? Who knew?
Speaker 1: Was?
Speaker 3: I mean we all thought it was, you know, the media, everyone,
Speaker 3: Baz McCullum, everyone has watched him.
Speaker 2: They thought it was coming.
Speaker 3: But for him to also kind of know that it's
Speaker 3: that's yeah.
Speaker 1: It's rare now to score your first Test century, sorry,
Speaker 1: to score your first first class entry in a Test match.
Speaker 1: There are some good numbers and players that you dug up,
Speaker 1: including some of the English guys. Gus Atkinson did it,
Speaker 1: Stuart Broad did it, Jack Russell or Keeper did it.
Speaker 1: I've also found some others Lou from other countries. Jason Holder,
Speaker 1: he did it from the West Indies of course, Jason
Speaker 1: Gillespie he did it as night watching and then this
Speaker 1: is a surprise. Kumar Sangakara yeah as well from Shrinker.
Speaker 1: So if you can have half a career that Kuma
Speaker 1: he'll be doing pretty well.
Speaker 3: So a bit of a theme with those ones. Yeah,
Speaker 3: Atkinson suit Broad is one of them. Jack Russell, there
Speaker 3: was a guy from pre nineteen hundred's weally bin cricket
Speaker 3: doesn't count.
Speaker 2: In Healy did it as well. So the theme.
Speaker 3: There is wicket keepers and handy lower roared to batters
Speaker 3: who are primarily bowlers. They are the ones doing it
Speaker 3: not And then you know there's a couple from I
Speaker 3: guess countries or regions in Holder's case, where the first
Speaker 3: class system maybe isn't you know, as robust as Australia
Speaker 3: in England and maybe India. But and then I guess
Speaker 3: you get the prodigies. I guess that's the other category
Speaker 3: is and Sanga Kara was probably one of those. Holders
Speaker 3: was probably one of those as well as one of
Speaker 3: the most talented cricketers coming through it at one hundred
Speaker 3: nineteen's level, certainly in the last last couple of decades.
Speaker 3: So there are some guys who can just be fast
Speaker 3: tracked to.
Speaker 1: Greatness, definitely, and Bethel might be one of those. Only
Speaker 1: twenty two years of age the start of the day
Speaker 1: Australia scored three for forty nine to get their total
Speaker 1: up to five hundred and sixty seven. It was Bo
Speaker 1: Webster who was not out seventy one, not out stranded,
Speaker 1: perhaps short of his made in Test century, but had
Speaker 1: fantastically well. It didn't look like getting out really And
Speaker 1: then it was Mitch Stark who struck for the twenty
Speaker 1: seventh time in the first over of a Test innings
Speaker 1: and he got Crawley out for the third time in
Speaker 1: that fashion in this series.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was an interesting start from Mitchell Stark because
Speaker 3: it looked like that was a pretty wild and wooly
Speaker 3: first over. Like that ball that came back to Crawley
Speaker 3: was an absolute beauty. But the rest of them were
Speaker 3: nowhere near the stump, so were sure they were wide.
Speaker 3: You know, Duckett kind of got off the mark with
Speaker 3: some of them, but yeah, he just speared one back
Speaker 3: into his pads. And that's kind of bowler he is.
Speaker 3: He struggled all game. In fact, I reckon with the footholes,
Speaker 3: even in the first sinnings when they hadn't been anywhere
Speaker 3: and down on the wicket. He was really battling. And
Speaker 3: that seems to be a theme. It doesn't seem to
Speaker 3: just he just doesn't love bowling at this ground. They
Speaker 3: even had to kind of swing him around from the
Speaker 3: other end to bowl from there. But you know the
Speaker 3: way Michael Nisa and Scott Bowland in particular in this
Speaker 3: innings have just kind of picked it up off the
Speaker 3: back of him, you know, maybe not being quite at
Speaker 3: his best the last two tests of this series, which
Speaker 3: is forgivable. Bowland I thought was just immense two thirty
Speaker 3: four up nineteen overs I think he had. You know,
Speaker 3: he'd considered thirteen runs from his first ten overs of
Speaker 3: the day, so he was just relentless and that created
Speaker 3: a lot of pressure. You know, Nissa gets Ben Duckett
Speaker 3: up to he kind of gets away to his high
Speaker 3: score of the series. It only gets his series average
Speaker 3: up to about twenty, but he looked like finally a
Speaker 3: big score was in the offing. But yeah, Nissa gets
Speaker 3: duck it. Boland then gets Joe Root on the back
Speaker 3: of some really excellent bowling, and it kind of brings
Speaker 3: Brooke and Bethel together and for a moment there it
Speaker 3: looked like things were going pretty well for England.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so Ducket's a serious total two hundred and two
Speaker 1: runs I've also dug out the stats how many times
Speaker 1: you reckon?
Speaker 2: He left the ball?
Speaker 3: This seriously, probably probably quite a few more times I
Speaker 3: reckon than what he had done in previous series. That
Speaker 3: might I haven't looked up the previous series, but his
Speaker 3: total leaves for the series with ten, so probably more
Speaker 3: than you'd think actually considering that reputation he has. But
Speaker 3: I went back and had a look at a few
Speaker 3: of them. Some are, you know, swaying out of a
Speaker 3: lay of bouncers. So we're counting those as leaves because
Speaker 3: he's not trying to cook or pull.
Speaker 2: But you could you could probably discount them, really.
Speaker 1: You could in a sense, Yeah, it's those ones outside
Speaker 1: off that we're looking for, aren't we And there was
Speaker 1: only a handful.
Speaker 3: Of those so well, And I mean he would have
Speaker 3: been warned, but you know, the kind of pitches they've
Speaker 3: been playing on, you don't really need to leave the
Speaker 3: ball because you can always trust the bounce. And he
Speaker 3: would have been worn that. It wouldn't work in Australia
Speaker 3: and it hasn't worked in Australia.
Speaker 2: You know, absolute absolute shock.
Speaker 3: So you have to change your game when you when
Speaker 3: you go to different conditions the best players do. No
Speaker 3: one bats the same way in every single conditions. Bethel
Speaker 3: was up here just now saying that he opened up
Speaker 3: his stance from his first test at the MCG of
Speaker 3: the series compared.
Speaker 2: To test too. The best players are always.
Speaker 1: Tinkering with their game, adjusting and making changes on the move.
Speaker 1: You touched on the Boland to Root thing there. Boland
Speaker 1: was just at his accurate best, wasn't he? And in
Speaker 1: fact that little passage of player that he had two
Speaker 1: Joe roots. He bowled twenty four balls at the former
Speaker 1: England captain Rude didn't score off any of them before
Speaker 1: he was trapped LBW and it looked like Rut didn't
Speaker 1: want to review that, or at least that he took
Speaker 1: some convincing from Bethel his partner. But then when the
Speaker 1: ball tracker showed that it was just clipping the top
Speaker 1: of the baiales, he looked furious that he had been
Speaker 1: given out in that fashion, or maybe it was just disbelief.
Speaker 1: He sort of threw his head back and then dropped
Speaker 1: his bat, although I don't think that was a deliberate act.
Speaker 1: Maybe he just fumbled it as he was turning around
Speaker 1: to head to the sheds. But that was a big
Speaker 1: moment in this game because Rute batted so well on
Speaker 1: that first innings and then he's out for six off
Speaker 1: thirty seven. Here.
Speaker 3: He looked furious, didn't he. And I think the dropping
Speaker 3: of the bat was almost a metaphorical kind of addition
Speaker 3: to it, just added to the theater and the drama
Speaker 3: of it. He was a guy who's maybe played his
Speaker 3: last ashes Test innings in Australia. I have to say
Speaker 3: ashes before Test innings because there is the one hundred
Speaker 3: and fiftieth Test he next year. I think people forget that.
Speaker 3: You'd be surprised if route he isn't playing for England,
Speaker 3: you know, within the next fourteen months, so he might
Speaker 3: get another another go out here. But yeah, his last
Speaker 3: last knock in Sydney certainly, And yeah, he shaped as
Speaker 3: a danger man after his first inning century. And yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean the fact that the fact that Brook and
Speaker 3: Bethel got going despite him, despite him, you know, not
Speaker 3: making too many runs. You know, budded really well for England,
Speaker 3: and then there was some even more infuriating kind of
Speaker 3: stuff to follow, wasn't it.
Speaker 1: There was so Brooke and Bethel put one hundred partnership,
Speaker 1: they've restored parody, they're building a lead now for England.
Speaker 1: And then yeah, bo Webster is throwing the ball of
Speaker 1: Bosom off spin, which he's done most of his careers.
Speaker 1: The medium pace is just a recent sort of edition,
Speaker 1: so he says he doesn't practice it a lot. It's well,
Speaker 1: here's the words he's got off he's on tap, just
Speaker 1: in case they're ever called it.
Speaker 3: A pint, and that him and Travis had agree that
Speaker 3: the less you practice them, the better they are.
Speaker 1: I don't know if the coaches would agree with that,
Speaker 1: but that's certainly their philosophy. And then in his second
Speaker 1: over he gets one to turn sharply into Brook that
Speaker 1: Webster didn't even think was going to hit the stumps.
Speaker 1: Alex Carey did and thankfully, frustrating Kerry was able to
Speaker 1: convince Smith to take The review was only one second
Speaker 1: on the clock and three reds.
Speaker 3: I think the whole thing probably proves that both teams
Speaker 3: were wrong in not picking a specialist spinner. It's a
Speaker 3: hard one because Todd Murphy probably would have played in
Speaker 3: the bow Webs spot. Yeah that's right, but yeah, like
Speaker 3: I mean, and you know, bow Webbs has been one
Speaker 3: of their best players, and it's maybe their best player
Speaker 3: and in the match, maybe the most impactful with seventy
Speaker 3: one not out and three really crucial wickets. So I
Speaker 3: don't know how you kind of shake that all out.
Speaker 3: You probably would have him instead of Green really, if
Speaker 3: you know, if they wanted to get Websit into the team,
Speaker 3: I think they would have looked.
Speaker 2: At that way.
Speaker 3: But yeah, it was great bowling to get Brook and
Speaker 3: then geez Will Jacks like what a test that he's having,
Speaker 3: like to come down second, second ball and try to
Speaker 3: mow him over. I guess he was trying to get
Speaker 3: him over midwicket mid on. He's just got to you know,
Speaker 3: too little of it and squirt it out to Cameron Green,
Speaker 3: ironically the exact same bound he'd put down Travis Head
Speaker 3: the previous day. I think there were about twenty people
Speaker 3: ready to make that point in the press box as
Speaker 3: soon as it happened, but it just felt like a
Speaker 3: mindless wicket at that point.
Speaker 1: Ricky Punting said, you know, what do you say to
Speaker 1: you teammates and you walk back into the sheds and
Speaker 1: you've played a shot like that. I'm sure he was
Speaker 1: promoted ahead of the injured Stokes and ahead of wicket
Speaker 1: keeper Jamie Smith because of his ability to bat for
Speaker 1: long periods of time, which he's shown in Brisbane and
Speaker 1: in Adelaide. Here he comes out and does that.
Speaker 2: It was baffling.
Speaker 3: Well, I don't know what he supposed to be as
Speaker 3: a Test cricketer. He hasn't had a bad series like
Speaker 3: I think there's been. He's bold as well as he
Speaker 3: could have. Like I don't think, you know, he's done
Speaker 3: what he would have said on the sorry with the ball,
Speaker 3: he's done what he said on the tin. With the bat,
Speaker 3: he's done the opposite. I mean he's supposed to be
Speaker 3: this t twenty ye blaster, come in number eight, counterattacking.
Speaker 2: Whatever it is.
Speaker 3: His strike rate for the series, his twenty runs lower
Speaker 3: per hundred balls. And it was mcguaja, who's, you know,
Speaker 3: probably the most watchful of the Australian batters. I think
Speaker 3: it stood at forty coming into this inning. So a
Speaker 3: really puzzling move from him, and caps are you know
Speaker 3: he's placed in the line on the line going into
Speaker 3: this Test. So that was a frustrating one. And then,
Speaker 3: I mean even more frustrating was Jamie Smith saidsit because Yep,
Speaker 3: he's scoring quite quickly, as as he always does. Again
Speaker 3: it's at the hands of Barnas Lavisha.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Marnus was bowling, came on to bowl the short
Speaker 1: stuff to him and then a bit of a mix up.
Speaker 1: I'm interested to get your take on this. It was
Speaker 1: nice work, must be said from Jake Weatherold. Yeah, square
Speaker 1: leg or just in front of square had to come
Speaker 1: around to his left hand side, so non preferred got
Speaker 1: onto his right and was able to pinpoint the throw
Speaker 1: to Laboshine, who, as he always does, gets right over
Speaker 1: the top of the stumps. It looked like Smith had
Speaker 1: gone beyond halfway of the pitch before turning around. Bethel
Speaker 1: was sort of ball watching. Whose fault does that go
Speaker 1: down to? Yeah?
Speaker 3: I think some responsibility has to go to Bethel, but
Speaker 3: I don't think all of it. Look, maybe it's sixty forty.
Speaker 3: Bethel's way would have been a good one to ask
Speaker 3: him a second go whether he felt some responsibility, because yeah,
Speaker 3: you're right, he's kind of ball watching. He's unsure. It's
Speaker 3: one of those ones just out of reach of the field.
Speaker 3: If they had taken the run, I think he would
Speaker 3: have been scrambling. But he so I guess you know
Speaker 3: your junior cricket coaches would say, anything in front of
Speaker 3: the wicked is the striker's call, Anything behind the wicked
Speaker 3: is the non strikers call. I think that's not always
Speaker 3: the case when you've got a good line of sight
Speaker 3: on the ball. So he would have known, Okay, that's
Speaker 3: gone to weather, it's left. How far to his left?
Speaker 3: I suppose it's a question, and it is going to
Speaker 3: his non preferred side. So you know, Smith was probably
Speaker 3: doing the right thing by trying to get down the
Speaker 3: other end, but he's just overcommitted a bit.
Speaker 2: I think.
Speaker 3: Yeah, certainly, certainly Bethel could have called more clearly, I think.
Speaker 3: But in the same boat, I don't think Smith really
Speaker 3: should have been that far down the wicket, but excellent
Speaker 3: fielding and it would just something if you're an England fan.
Speaker 2: It would just frustrate, you know.
Speaker 1: End. Yeah, And if you look at that replay, Bethel
Speaker 1: as sort of he's got his hands on his knees.
Speaker 1: He looks as devastated as Smith that he played a
Speaker 1: part in that runout, but it didn't face him. He
Speaker 1: kept going, didn't he even when he's injured. Captain Ben
Speaker 1: Stokes came out and lasted five balls, couldn't really run
Speaker 1: too well between the wickets. He's obviously hobbled by that adductor.
Speaker 3: We're saying, a doctor, a double duc which is why doctor,
Speaker 3: that's the inside of the groin. I believe the abductor
Speaker 3: is on the outside, kind of more your hip flexa area.
Speaker 2: Okay, have I passed that test?
Speaker 3: Job?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: No, I'm not. I'm asking.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so yeah, really concerning for him, and he's bowled
Speaker 3: a lot of overs in this series. I think Brighton
Speaker 3: Cass is the only one to bowled more. You know,
Speaker 3: he's bowled himself into the ground. And I think there
Speaker 3: were some question marks as to why he didn't come
Speaker 3: out at six. Well, you know it was clear. I
Speaker 3: mean even at eight that might have been a spot
Speaker 3: too high. You saw the first ball that Bethel faced
Speaker 3: after Smith got out. He tucked one around the corner
Speaker 3: and he started running and then Stokes just was walking
Speaker 3: down the other end and Bethel was like, oh, hang on,
Speaker 3: what's going on? Like it seems crazy that there wasn't
Speaker 3: more of a conversation had, like you know, Stokes making
Speaker 3: he probably needs to make it clear to Bethel like okay,
Speaker 3: like I'm out here, but we're not running any quick singles.
Speaker 3: So who knows what exactly that conversation looked like. But yeah, Bethel,
Speaker 3: it was good that he was paying so much attention
Speaker 3: to his teammate because it could have been a little
Speaker 3: bit hairy. But yeah, you could just tell Stokes wasn't
Speaker 3: quite right. It did feel like the stage was set
Speaker 3: for a Stokes like just dig in to show you guys. Well,
Speaker 3: I don't think he could. Physically, he just can't tee
Speaker 3: off right, like he saw the first couple of balls
Speaker 3: he faced from Marnas trying to get under those coupers,
Speaker 3: which you know, you do have a lot more time
Speaker 3: getting under those bumpers compared to compared to Mitchell Stark,
Speaker 3: Like he was in a lot of pain ducking under them.
Speaker 3: You know, I imagine if Stark had been let loose
Speaker 3: on him. And then yeah, going back to that bow
Speaker 3: Webster ball that was that was just not a shot
Speaker 3: that Ben Stokes wouldn't ordinarily play off a bowler of
Speaker 3: Webster's caliber.
Speaker 1: Let's say it was Webster's third wicket. He finished the
Speaker 1: day with three for fifty one. Now, I don't love
Speaker 1: to name drop Lou, but I do have a little
Speaker 1: bow Webster's story for you.
Speaker 3: Here.
Speaker 1: On the way down to the press conference room at
Speaker 1: the SCG, you have to get into some lifts that
Speaker 1: are shared with some corporate suites. I was lucky enough
Speaker 1: to be in with a Crash Credit of fame. And
Speaker 1: then in comes John Howard and his wife. So as
Speaker 1: we're waiting Jeannethe Jane Howard. Hello to as we're coming
Speaker 1: down the lift, I said to John, you know Bow Webster.
Speaker 1: He's surprised a bit, didn't he got three for John Goes.
Speaker 1: I didn't think you bold that well. Someone to s
Speaker 1: feedback from the former PM not a big fan of
Speaker 1: big Bow.
Speaker 3: Calling it like he says, I reckon, that's probably a
Speaker 3: fair I mean bo Webster certainly didn't send to Raid
Speaker 3: his own spin that much. That's a remarkable sledge from
Speaker 3: Prime Minister. I wouldn't be surprised to see that in
Speaker 3: Crashes copies.
Speaker 1: Now. Because of Bethel's performance in this match and tongues
Speaker 1: in the last, it does make you wonder hold the
Speaker 1: series have played out if those two were selected in
Speaker 1: Perth and the proceed and the subsequent matches, Lou, I mean,
Speaker 1: have England got their selection wrong or were they just
Speaker 1: not ready at that time of the series.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I can see why they went in with the
Speaker 3: team they did going into Perth. It worked really well
Speaker 3: for one innings, it didn't for the next. That probably
Speaker 3: sucked them in a little bit to thinking this very
Speaker 3: untested combination of Archer, would and Atkinson and Stokes and
Speaker 3: there's one more Cars. Of course, yeah, he's probably the
Speaker 3: one I should because I've watched.
Speaker 2: Him bold more than anyone.
Speaker 3: But yeah, Wood went down with injury after one of
Speaker 3: that first test, Archer then after three Atkinson midway.
Speaker 2: Through the fourth.
Speaker 3: It just it felt like they they obviously had a
Speaker 3: clear plan on how they want to go about it,
Speaker 3: but that I don't think that a contingency for if
Speaker 3: things went wrong, and you know, and a contingency for like, Okay,
Speaker 3: Josh Tungue actually looks like he might be bowling better
Speaker 3: than than Cars and maybe your rest cast for a test,
Speaker 3: or maybe your rest Josh for Archer for for a test.
Speaker 3: It's a really difficult one as well, in the sense
Speaker 3: that like, oh, we kind of hinted it early in
Speaker 3: the series. We're like, well, why are they playing someone
Speaker 3: who can kind of nip it around like a Matthew
Speaker 3: Potts might be helpful. Well, it turns out Matthew Potts
Speaker 3: isn't that good. You know, maybe that's a little bit
Speaker 3: harsher and maybe earlier in this series he might have
Speaker 3: been able to play more of apart, but yeah, certainly.
Speaker 3: I mean the other thing about Bethel, this is the
Speaker 3: whole thing with how England have gone about their selection
Speaker 3: in this series. Like their only specialist battle was a
Speaker 3: guy who'd never made a first class hundred. So you know,
Speaker 3: it does feel like they kind of had made a
Speaker 3: few missteps along the way. The fact that, you know,
Speaker 3: if they really did rate Bethel so much, like they
Speaker 3: should have had him at three earlier, you know, all
Speaker 3: through that India series to really see what he was
Speaker 3: made of and make sure he's he's ready to go
Speaker 3: for this for this next series, and then you could
Speaker 3: always go back to Olipope because you know he had
Speaker 3: that test experience, you know, going back quite a long way,
Speaker 3: I think they could have pulled the trigger on that
Speaker 3: probably before this series. I can understand why they're then
Speaker 3: stuck with it was a bit of ride or die
Speaker 3: wasn't it with Pope and some of those other guys
Speaker 3: through them through the first three Tests. So yeah, certainly
Speaker 3: Tongue should should have played earlier because he's been their
Speaker 3: best bowler.
Speaker 2: I think since he's come in, the.
Speaker 1: Seg has been the final destination for many England cricketers
Speaker 1: over the past few years. By that, I mean that
Speaker 1: they've played their final Test match at the end of
Speaker 1: an ASHES series and Louis you wrote a piece about
Speaker 1: that yesterday. You can find it on cricket dot com
Speaker 1: dot It's called Sydney enshrined as England Cricket's final destination?
Speaker 1: Will we see a few more in this Test match?
Speaker 1: Let's find out tomorrow. On Day five, Australia need two
Speaker 1: wickets to knock over England. The Pomps say late by
Speaker 1: one hundred and nineteen