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Hello everybody, this is The Unplayable Podcast, Day four of the Fifth Test here at the SCG and Australia.

Oh, they now trail England by one hundred and nineteen runs.

We've seen an amazing century to Jacob Bethel here, one hundred and forty two not out as it stands, and overall a pretty great day of Test cricket.

Eleven wickets, three hundred and fifty one runs and we've got a game, folks.

Yeah, I think we do.

Tentatively, it felt like the way England had some kind of mind explosions, like in the piece there, it felt like what Jacob Bethel had done a ton for the ages was going to be completely undone in.

A bit of a flash.

But there are one hundred and ten, one hundred and nineteen runs ahead now.

Jacob Bethay sat up here in the press conference a second ago and said, if we can get it up to one eighty one ninety who knows.

I tend to agree with him.

But England, as I think you've pointed out, England agan need to bowlop it than they have in this game so far.

I mean, it's been the story of the series.

England have got themselves into strongish positions and then have relinquished that.

We saw a couple more today, which we will get to.

A brook Wick at Jack's Wicker of Stokes, sorry, a Smith run out, So we'll get to all those, but let's stay with Jacob Bethel because what an innings that was austraight in lasts too long today, and then Bethel's in in the first over of England's innings after Stark struck again one hundred and two hundred and thirty two balls, sixteen fourth, A lot of those high class boundaries as well, you could make a claim for many of those being the shot of the day.

And he, I don't know, did he give a chance.

He was pretty much chanceless, and even when he had to spend seven balls on ninety nine, he never looked like he was going to panic.

He just looked.

Composed, calm, and he got there with not much doubt in the.

End, which is a great starting point, and I think it was four or five overs one shot away from one hundred.

He got to ninety six really quickly.

He got to into the nineties off some overthrows, kind of exactly what we're talking about the other to day around throwing at the stumps and the potential of creating some overthrows.

But that was probably my biggest takeaway of today was this is a man who has two centuries before today against grown men.

So I'm going off Cricket Archive, which is a pretty reliable source for me most of the time.

So not juniors, That's right, that's what you're saying.

Yeah, So there's the list I'm kind of going off.

Has a bunch, you know, Barbados under fifteens versus Jamaica under fifteens, English Schools, Cricket Association, Midlands under fifteens versus North under fifteens, Warwickshire under seventeens Young Lions stuff.

When he's actually played against men, there's been one hundred against the Warwickshire Fort Warwickshire second eleven against Clusters year second eleven.

Okay, so not even county stuff.

Well not in below county.

Yeah, second eleven stuff, and then there was another under nineteenth century following that, and then he made one in a bilateral ODI against South Africa.

Yet when he got to within one shot away from a century, he just kind of calmly nudged around.

He got a single, he got to ninety seven, he got to ninety eight, he got to ninety nine.

Stark bolt too ripping bounces at him, you know, one hundred and forty five k an hour.

Yep, he got in the line of it.

And then when he finally saw bow webster flight wine up, he said, I'm having a piece of that and bunted him over long on that.

Just the composure he showed in that moment was extraordinary for a guy who, as we said, just hasn't got much experience in like he hasn't even done that at county level, Like he hasn't been he hasn't been dominating ODII cricket T twenty cricket.

Yes, we can all see the talent, but when it got to that moment, I was watching him really cihause, I'm likeual, he's never been in this pitchure before.

I guess you can you can see why the basball regimes have have fast tracked him.

Yeah they love him, don't they, and heading into today averaging only twenty seven in first class cricket from twenty seven matches, So it doesn't really strike you as a player of the future.

But when we saw him a bat today, it was without doubt that's six.

That was a great shot.

It came down the track.

And then the celebration was not over the top either.

It was if he was saying, like the job's not done.

It was a little fist pump and a little salute to his family, and the family was shown a lot on TV.

There weren't many words being spoken as he got through the nineties.

And then I reckon a few tears down his father's face when he did get there.

Great to see, and yeah, that's one of the things that makes test cricket special.

It does.

Yeah, and dad is an absolute spitting image.

Apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

And but yeah, he was he was really struggling.

Bethel himself said I found his press conference just before really interesting.

He said that he could nervous when he sees other people in the nineties, but you know, I guess like he does it in himself.

He wouldn't really know because he just hasn't been in that position too much.

You know.

It's interesting as well, like he came out and played a season a great cricket out here, didn't get to one hundred in that either.

He played, he got to the ninety nine in under twenty one game, but he never passed fifty playing in first grade in Sydney.

So it's interesting.

And even we asked him about him before and about Great Cricket, he said, I didn't really learn much, Like it's very different conditions to you know, what you're going to play at the next level, and it's like, well, you're an eighteen year old kid, Like what do you mean the next level?

Like there was no next level at that point.

But this is a it's not to be confused with arrogance, because he seems like a very humble, down to worth, modest kid.

But he has clearly just been pre ordained for greater things the whole time, and it's like he's known it.

It's a remarkable, remarkable story, remarkable character.

He was asked as well if he had can sit it about or thought forward ahead to what he would do when he would get this one hundred, his first hundred in first class cricket, and he said it was always coming, wasn't it?

So that was maybe that could be a mistaken as arrogance, but that is just a young kid with a full belief in his own ability.

That was a remarkable line.

That really was a remarkable line.

It was like out no, it was always coming.

Yeah, hang on, what do you mean who knew?

Who knew?

Was?

I mean we all thought it was, you know, the media, everyone, Baz McCullum, everyone has watched him.

They thought it was coming.

But for him to also kind of know that it's that's yeah.

It's rare now to score your first Test century, sorry, to score your first first class entry in a Test match.

There are some good numbers and players that you dug up, including some of the English guys.

Gus Atkinson did it, Stuart Broad did it, Jack Russell or Keeper did it.

I've also found some others Lou from other countries.

Jason Holder, he did it from the West Indies of course, Jason Gillespie he did it as night watching and then this is a surprise.

Kumar Sangakara yeah as well from Shrinker.

So if you can have half a career that Kuma he'll be doing pretty well.

So a bit of a theme with those ones.

Yeah, Atkinson suit Broad is one of them.

Jack Russell, there was a guy from pre nineteen hundred's weally bin cricket doesn't count.

In Healy did it as well.

So the theme.

There is wicket keepers and handy lower roared to batters who are primarily bowlers.

They are the ones doing it not And then you know there's a couple from I guess countries or regions in Holder's case, where the first class system maybe isn't you know, as robust as Australia in England and maybe India.

But and then I guess you get the prodigies.

I guess that's the other category is and Sanga Kara was probably one of those.

Holders was probably one of those as well as one of the most talented cricketers coming through it at one hundred nineteen's level, certainly in the last last couple of decades.

So there are some guys who can just be fast tracked to.

Greatness, definitely, and Bethel might be one of those.

Only twenty two years of age the start of the day Australia scored three for forty nine to get their total up to five hundred and sixty seven.

It was Bo Webster who was not out seventy one, not out stranded, perhaps short of his made in Test century, but had fantastically well.

It didn't look like getting out really And then it was Mitch Stark who struck for the twenty seventh time in the first over of a Test innings and he got Crawley out for the third time in that fashion in this series.

Yeah, it was an interesting start from Mitchell Stark because it looked like that was a pretty wild and wooly first over.

Like that ball that came back to Crawley was an absolute beauty.

But the rest of them were nowhere near the stump, so were sure they were wide.

You know, Duckett kind of got off the mark with some of them, but yeah, he just speared one back into his pads.

And that's kind of bowler he is.

He struggled all game.

In fact, I reckon with the footholes, even in the first sinnings when they hadn't been anywhere and down on the wicket.

He was really battling.

And that seems to be a theme.

It doesn't seem to just he just doesn't love bowling at this ground.

They even had to kind of swing him around from the other end to bowl from there.

But you know the way Michael Nisa and Scott Bowland in particular in this innings have just kind of picked it up off the back of him, you know, maybe not being quite at his best the last two tests of this series, which is forgivable.

Bowland I thought was just immense two thirty four up nineteen overs I think he had.

You know, he'd considered thirteen runs from his first ten overs of the day, so he was just relentless and that created a lot of pressure.

You know, Nissa gets Ben Duckett up to he kind of gets away to his high score of the series.

It only gets his series average up to about twenty, but he looked like finally a big score was in the offing.

But yeah, Nissa gets duck it.

Boland then gets Joe Root on the back of some really excellent bowling, and it kind of brings Brooke and Bethel together and for a moment there it looked like things were going pretty well for England.

Yeah, so Ducket's a serious total two hundred and two runs I've also dug out the stats how many times you reckon?

He left the ball?

This seriously, probably probably quite a few more times I reckon than what he had done in previous series.

That might I haven't looked up the previous series, but his total leaves for the series with ten, so probably more than you'd think actually considering that reputation he has.

But I went back and had a look at a few of them.

Some are, you know, swaying out of a lay of bouncers.

So we're counting those as leaves because he's not trying to cook or pull.

But you could you could probably discount them, really.

You could in a sense, Yeah, it's those ones outside off that we're looking for, aren't we And there was only a handful.

Of those so well, And I mean he would have been warned, but you know, the kind of pitches they've been playing on, you don't really need to leave the ball because you can always trust the bounce.

And he would have been worn that.

It wouldn't work in Australia and it hasn't worked in Australia.

You know, absolute absolute shock.

So you have to change your game when you when you go to different conditions the best players do.

No one bats the same way in every single conditions.

Bethel was up here just now saying that he opened up his stance from his first test at the MCG of the series compared.

To test too.

The best players are always.

Tinkering with their game, adjusting and making changes on the move.

You touched on the Boland to Root thing there.

Boland was just at his accurate best, wasn't he?

And in fact that little passage of player that he had two Joe roots.

He bowled twenty four balls at the former England captain Rude didn't score off any of them before he was trapped LBW and it looked like Rut didn't want to review that, or at least that he took some convincing from Bethel his partner.

But then when the ball tracker showed that it was just clipping the top of the baiales, he looked furious that he had been given out in that fashion, or maybe it was just disbelief.

He sort of threw his head back and then dropped his bat, although I don't think that was a deliberate act.

Maybe he just fumbled it as he was turning around to head to the sheds.

But that was a big moment in this game because Rute batted so well on that first innings and then he's out for six off thirty seven.

Here.

He looked furious, didn't he.

And I think the dropping of the bat was almost a metaphorical kind of addition to it, just added to the theater and the drama of it.

He was a guy who's maybe played his last ashes Test innings in Australia.

I have to say ashes before Test innings because there is the one hundred and fiftieth Test he next year.

I think people forget that.

You'd be surprised if route he isn't playing for England, you know, within the next fourteen months, so he might get another another go out here.

But yeah, his last last knock in Sydney certainly, And yeah, he shaped as a danger man after his first inning century.

And yeah, I mean the fact that the fact that Brook and Bethel got going despite him, despite him, you know, not making too many runs.

You know, budded really well for England, and then there was some even more infuriating kind of stuff to follow, wasn't it.

There was so Brooke and Bethel put one hundred partnership, they've restored parody, they're building a lead now for England.

And then yeah, bo Webster is throwing the ball of Bosom off spin, which he's done most of his careers.

The medium pace is just a recent sort of edition, so he says he doesn't practice it a lot.

It's well, here's the words he's got off he's on tap, just in case they're ever called it.

A pint, and that him and Travis had agree that the less you practice them, the better they are.

I don't know if the coaches would agree with that, but that's certainly their philosophy.

And then in his second over he gets one to turn sharply into Brook that Webster didn't even think was going to hit the stumps.

Alex Carey did and thankfully, frustrating Kerry was able to convince Smith to take The review was only one second on the clock and three reds.

I think the whole thing probably proves that both teams were wrong in not picking a specialist spinner.

It's a hard one because Todd Murphy probably would have played in the bow Webs spot.

Yeah that's right, but yeah, like I mean, and you know, bow Webbs has been one of their best players, and it's maybe their best player and in the match, maybe the most impactful with seventy one not out and three really crucial wickets.

So I don't know how you kind of shake that all out.

You probably would have him instead of Green really, if you know, if they wanted to get Websit into the team, I think they would have looked.

At that way.

But yeah, it was great bowling to get Brook and then geez Will Jacks like what a test that he's having, like to come down second, second ball and try to mow him over.

I guess he was trying to get him over midwicket mid on.

He's just got to you know, too little of it and squirt it out to Cameron Green, ironically the exact same bound he'd put down Travis Head the previous day.

I think there were about twenty people ready to make that point in the press box as soon as it happened, but it just felt like a mindless wicket at that point.

Ricky Punting said, you know, what do you say to you teammates and you walk back into the sheds and you've played a shot like that.

I'm sure he was promoted ahead of the injured Stokes and ahead of wicket keeper Jamie Smith because of his ability to bat for long periods of time, which he's shown in Brisbane and in Adelaide.

Here he comes out and does that.

It was baffling.

Well, I don't know what he supposed to be as a Test cricketer.

He hasn't had a bad series like I think there's been.

He's bold as well as he could have.

Like I don't think, you know, he's done what he would have said on the sorry with the ball, he's done what he said on the tin.

With the bat, he's done the opposite.

I mean he's supposed to be this t twenty ye blaster, come in number eight, counterattacking.

Whatever it is.

His strike rate for the series, his twenty runs lower per hundred balls.

And it was mcguaja, who's, you know, probably the most watchful of the Australian batters.

I think it stood at forty coming into this inning.

So a really puzzling move from him, and caps are you know he's placed in the line on the line going into this Test.

So that was a frustrating one.

And then, I mean even more frustrating was Jamie Smith saidsit because Yep, he's scoring quite quickly, as as he always does.

Again it's at the hands of Barnas Lavisha.

Yeah, Marnus was bowling, came on to bowl the short stuff to him and then a bit of a mix up.

I'm interested to get your take on this.

It was nice work, must be said from Jake Weatherold.

Yeah, square leg or just in front of square had to come around to his left hand side, so non preferred got onto his right and was able to pinpoint the throw to Laboshine, who, as he always does, gets right over the top of the stumps.

It looked like Smith had gone beyond halfway of the pitch before turning around.

Bethel was sort of ball watching.

Whose fault does that go down to?

Yeah?

I think some responsibility has to go to Bethel, but I don't think all of it.

Look, maybe it's sixty forty.

Bethel's way would have been a good one to ask him a second go whether he felt some responsibility, because yeah, you're right, he's kind of ball watching.

He's unsure.

It's one of those ones just out of reach of the field.

If they had taken the run, I think he would have been scrambling.

But he so I guess you know your junior cricket coaches would say, anything in front of the wicked is the striker's call, Anything behind the wicked is the non strikers call.

I think that's not always the case when you've got a good line of sight on the ball.

So he would have known, Okay, that's gone to weather, it's left.

How far to his left?

I suppose it's a question, and it is going to his non preferred side.

So you know, Smith was probably doing the right thing by trying to get down the other end, but he's just overcommitted a bit.

I think.

Yeah, certainly, certainly Bethel could have called more clearly, I think.

But in the same boat, I don't think Smith really should have been that far down the wicket, but excellent fielding and it would just something if you're an England fan.

It would just frustrate, you know.

End.

Yeah, And if you look at that replay, Bethel as sort of he's got his hands on his knees.

He looks as devastated as Smith that he played a part in that runout, but it didn't face him.

He kept going, didn't he even when he's injured.

Captain Ben Stokes came out and lasted five balls, couldn't really run too well between the wickets.

He's obviously hobbled by that adductor.

We're saying, a doctor, a double duc which is why doctor, that's the inside of the groin.

I believe the abductor is on the outside, kind of more your hip flexa area.

Okay, have I passed that test?

Job?

No?

No, I'm not.

I'm asking.

I don't know.

Yep.

Yeah, so yeah, really concerning for him, and he's bowled a lot of overs in this series.

I think Brighton Cass is the only one to bowled more.

You know, he's bowled himself into the ground.

And I think there were some question marks as to why he didn't come out at six.

Well, you know it was clear.

I mean even at eight that might have been a spot too high.

You saw the first ball that Bethel faced after Smith got out.

He tucked one around the corner and he started running and then Stokes just was walking down the other end and Bethel was like, oh, hang on, what's going on?

Like it seems crazy that there wasn't more of a conversation had, like you know, Stokes making he probably needs to make it clear to Bethel like okay, like I'm out here, but we're not running any quick singles.

So who knows what exactly that conversation looked like.

But yeah, Bethel, it was good that he was paying so much attention to his teammate because it could have been a little bit hairy.

But yeah, you could just tell Stokes wasn't quite right.

It did feel like the stage was set for a Stokes like just dig in to show you guys.

Well, I don't think he could.

Physically, he just can't tee off right, like he saw the first couple of balls he faced from Marnas trying to get under those coupers, which you know, you do have a lot more time getting under those bumpers compared to compared to Mitchell Stark, Like he was in a lot of pain ducking under them.

You know, I imagine if Stark had been let loose on him.

And then yeah, going back to that bow Webster ball that was that was just not a shot that Ben Stokes wouldn't ordinarily play off a bowler of Webster's caliber.

Let's say it was Webster's third wicket.

He finished the day with three for fifty one.

Now, I don't love to name drop Lou, but I do have a little bow Webster's story for you.

Here.

On the way down to the press conference room at the SCG, you have to get into some lifts that are shared with some corporate suites.

I was lucky enough to be in with a Crash Credit of fame.

And then in comes John Howard and his wife.

So as we're waiting Jeannethe Jane Howard.

Hello to as we're coming down the lift, I said to John, you know Bow Webster.

He's surprised a bit, didn't he got three for John Goes.

I didn't think you bold that well.

Someone to s feedback from the former PM not a big fan of big Bow.

Calling it like he says, I reckon, that's probably a fair I mean bo Webster certainly didn't send to Raid his own spin that much.

That's a remarkable sledge from Prime Minister.

I wouldn't be surprised to see that in Crashes copies.

Now.

Because of Bethel's performance in this match and tongues in the last, it does make you wonder hold the series have played out if those two were selected in Perth and the proceed and the subsequent matches, Lou, I mean, have England got their selection wrong or were they just not ready at that time of the series.

Yeah, I can see why they went in with the team they did going into Perth.

It worked really well for one innings, it didn't for the next.

That probably sucked them in a little bit to thinking this very untested combination of Archer, would and Atkinson and Stokes and there's one more Cars.

Of course, yeah, he's probably the one I should because I've watched.

Him bold more than anyone.

But yeah, Wood went down with injury after one of that first test, Archer then after three Atkinson midway.

Through the fourth.

It just it felt like they they obviously had a clear plan on how they want to go about it, but that I don't think that a contingency for if things went wrong, and you know, and a contingency for like, Okay, Josh Tungue actually looks like he might be bowling better than than Cars and maybe your rest cast for a test, or maybe your rest Josh for Archer for for a test.

It's a really difficult one as well, in the sense that like, oh, we kind of hinted it early in the series.

We're like, well, why are they playing someone who can kind of nip it around like a Matthew Potts might be helpful.

Well, it turns out Matthew Potts isn't that good.

You know, maybe that's a little bit harsher and maybe earlier in this series he might have been able to play more of apart, but yeah, certainly.

I mean the other thing about Bethel, this is the whole thing with how England have gone about their selection in this series.

Like their only specialist battle was a guy who'd never made a first class hundred.

So you know, it does feel like they kind of had made a few missteps along the way.

The fact that, you know, if they really did rate Bethel so much, like they should have had him at three earlier, you know, all through that India series to really see what he was made of and make sure he's he's ready to go for this for this next series, and then you could always go back to Olipope because you know he had that test experience, you know, going back quite a long way, I think they could have pulled the trigger on that probably before this series.

I can understand why they're then stuck with it was a bit of ride or die wasn't it with Pope and some of those other guys through them through the first three Tests.

So yeah, certainly Tongue should should have played earlier because he's been their best bowler.

I think since he's come in, the.

Seg has been the final destination for many England cricketers over the past few years.

By that, I mean that they've played their final Test match at the end of an ASHES series and Louis you wrote a piece about that yesterday.

You can find it on cricket dot com dot It's called Sydney enshrined as England Cricket's final destination?

Will we see a few more in this Test match?

Let's find out tomorrow.

On Day five, Australia need two wickets to knock over England.

The Pomps say late by one hundred and nineteen