Ashes 2017-18: Australia v England, fifth Test, day three – live!

75th over: Australia 217-2 (Khawaja 101, Smith 62) Moeen to bowl to Khawaja on 99, and there are no nerves as the century is raised with the minimum of fuss. There’s a look to the heavens but little fanfare in the celebrations. There are many more runs out there if Australia’s number three wants them.

A simple nudge into the offside gives Usman Khawaja his sixth Test century and first against England. Terrific patient knock from one of the most elegant batsmen in the game.

74th over: Australia 219-2 (Khawaja 99, Smith 62) Broad into the attack for a warm-up before the new ball. His first delivery is cack, belted to the cover fence by Smith with all the effort of a sleepy dog flicking an ear to dislodge a fly. The remaining five deliveries are all left alone outside off or defended back down the pitch.

73rd over: Australia 215-2 (Khawaja 99, Smith 58) Khawaja does execute the early boundary this time off Moeen, rocking back and cutting hard behind point for four. He finds the field with a similar stroke later in the over to move to 99.

George Wright has superbly upped the Miller/Miller ante. “I don’t have many opinions on that combined XI, but as a proud Lancastrian, I feel obliged to point out that you’ve mis-spelled Glen Chapple’s name. Impressed with Channel 9 though; a left-field but worthy inclusion. Clearly his single ODI against Ireland made quite the impression.”

72nd over: Australia 209-2 (Khawaja 94, Smith 57) More of the same from Anderson to Smith – and it almost pays off! After a succession of deliveries wide of off-stump a faster yorker speared towards the base of leg comes perilously close to a play-on. Smith survives though and advances the score by one. Khawaja also picks up a single as he creeps towards a century.

71st over: Australia 207-2 (Khawaja 93, Smith 56) Australia are definitely going after Moeen early here. Khawaja dances down the track and tries to launch him into Bondi second ball but succeeds only in inside-edging onto his boot. He’s more circumspect thereafter, happy to play out the first maiden of the day.

Russell Dean isn’t letting the Ashes XI chat die down. “Herbert Sutcliffe and Wally Hammond were both superior to Greg Chappell and Alan Border. Keith Miller was a fine all rounder but better than Ian Botham? Interesting the choice of Harold Larwood over Fred Trueman, when the latter was ostensibly a much better Test bowler over a longer period of time”.

70th over: Australia 207-2 (Khawaja 93, Smith 56) Watching Anderson bowl wide of Steve Smith’s off stump from around the wicket is more performance art than cricket. That, or a glitch in a cricket console game where the AI forgets what coordinates the pitch is on. Smith defends a stack from the crease on around an eighth-stump line before nurdling a couple towards square-leg.

69th over: Australia 204-2 (Khawaja 92, Smith 54) Moeen shares the old ball with Anderson but it matters not to Smith whether he’s facing pace or spin, the outcome is runs either way. The Australian skipper tickles a three to fine-leg to bring up his 23rd Test 50 to complement his 23 centuries. After Khawaja slaps a single to return Smith to strike the run-machine drives four more through the covers. It looked a lot like Moeen was being targeted that over.

68th over: Australia 196-2 (Khawaja 91, Smith 47) England begin the day with what Michael Vaughan describes as Plan X – it involves James Anderson bowling around the wicket to Steve Smith with a 7-2 offside field. Needless to say, it serves only to highlight Smith’s ingenious brilliance. Taking guard outside leg stump he’s outside off by the time the ball’s released and playing to the on-side with all the time in the world almost from silly point. Three effortless runs to begin the procession.

The players are making their way out onto the SCG. There’s a McGrath Foundation guard of honour with all the players handing commemorative pink caps to Glenn McGrath to auction.

We’ll be underway shortly.

That all-time Ashes XI malarkey has stirred plenty of emotion. Paul Frangi thinks it’s “nice of the Channel 9 experts to include all of three England players in that XI”. While Dave Grinnell is “a bit surprised that the Channel 9 team picked England’s Geoff Miller!”. And so is Gary Naylor!

Gary, Dave, I’ll just leave this here.

The brilliant Urthboy, author of a magnificent ode to the late Philip Hughes, could be another contender.

On the subject of Steve Smith songs (see Preamble) Patrick O’Brien has nominated Australian superstar DJ Flume for the task.

Peter Rowntree doesn’t think much to C9’s all-time Ashes XI. “No Lindwall, no Trueman, no Laker, no Benaud,” he emails, “reckon I could pick a team to whoop that lot with no problems!”. I’m pretty sure you can select your own team somewhere Peter via a sponsored link. Unfortunately I doubt you’ll be able to reanimate some of the legends required to prove your hypothesis.

Bad news for England with plenty of runs left in this SCG strip. Shane Warne assures us there’s spin on offer for Mason Crane, especially if he corrects his line to the left-handed Khawaja and forces him further towards the off-side.

On the subject of Crane, John Starbuck has emailed some thoughts, and you can too – details at the top of the page.

“Good morning. Mason Crane has seemingly done pretty well for a beginner, but will England learn from the experience? The pitch may misbehave but is unlikely to get bouncier, so should the close fielders be even closer for his second go, to try to induce the chances going more readily to hand?”.

Close catcher placement has been a quandary for both sides all series thanks to the lower than usual bounce at most venues. This is exacerbated by neither side containing a vintage cordon, despite the odd screamer.

Ali Martin gets to grips with Mason Crane who rolled his wrist over for the first time in the Test arena yesterday, to nods of approval from the greatest leggie of them all.

That all-time Ashes XI, as selected by the Channel 9 experts is: Hobbs, Hutton, Bradman G Chappell, Border, Miller, Gilchrist, Warne, Lillee, Larwood, McGrath.

Australian telly are selecting their all-time Ashes XI throughout this series. Today that means an opportunity for Ian Chappell to marvel at Harold Larwood eating steak for breakfast and drinking pints during the lunch break.

By the way, the XI so far does not contain Steve Smith. I wonder how long it will take for the star of the current crop to start competing with historic icons for a seat at the top table?

Adam Collins tells the story of Usman Khawaja’s latest career-saving knock.

You’ll be pleased to know it’s going to be a dry day at the cricket. There’s going to be a gusty north-easterly but otherwise it should be sunny and warm ahead of a scorcher tomorrow.

Or if words are more your thing, Vic Marks uses some of the finest to describe what happened on day two.

Catch up on yesterday’s action in glorious technicolour.

The Pink Test, as it’s now affectionately known, also means visitors to the SCG on Saturday are encouraged to wear pink – that includes the Channel 9 commentary crew.

Day three of the Sydney Test now means Jane McGrath Day, an annual celebration of the life of the late wife of Glenn McGrath, and a colourful opportunity to raise funds for the McGrath Foundation.

Follow this link for more on the McGrath Foundation and its mission to provide nursing support for Australians with breast cancer.

Jonathan will be here shortly.