{"id":358993,"date":"2025-12-19T20:36:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T20:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/358993\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T20:36:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T20:36:14","slug":"cricket-travis-head-century-crushes-englands-hopes-as-australia-eye-ashes-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/358993\/","title":{"rendered":"Cricket: Travis Head century crushes England’s hopes as Australia eye Ashes win"},"content":{"rendered":"

ADELAIDE: Travis Head<\/a> proved England’s nemesis once again as he scored his second century of the Ashes to carry Australia toward a \u2060seemingly inevitable series triumph on day three at Adelaide Oval<\/a> on Friday.<\/p>\n

Head’s unbeaten 142 in front of an adoring home crowd of 53,696 pushed Australia to 271 for four at stumps and a 356-run lead after England were bowled out for 286 in the morning.<\/p>\n

Australia lead the five-match series 2-0 after comfortable victories in Perth and Brisbane, \u200cand need only a \u200cdraw in Adelaide to retain the urn as holders.
“We’ve had another really, really good day,” Head told reporters.<\/p>\n

“We spoke today about trying to be as ruthless as much as we can … Tomorrow’s another \u200chuge day and I think the wicket’s deteriorating.”<\/p>\n

\"ETLive Events
Head’s fellow South Australian Alex Carey<\/a> also cashed in, adding an unbeaten 52, as the local heroes combined in an unbroken 122-run partnership to bang another nail into England’s coffin.
Head’s century was unwelcome deja vu for the tourists following his sensational 123 off 83 balls in the fourth innings in Perth.The second ton nearly eluded him, though, when he slashed Jofra Archer low to the gully when on 99, \u200bonly for Harry Brook to spill a second, costly catch of the test.<\/p>\n

The following over, Head \u200bsmashed Will Jacks over his head for four to bring up the hundred in 146 balls.<\/p>\n

The boundary sparked one of the warmest \u200covations of his sporting \u200dcareer, the 31-year-old getting down on his knees to kiss the pitch where he made his career for state \u200dside South Australia.<\/p>\n

STOKES NOT AMONG THE BOWLERS<\/p>\n

With England captain Ben Stokes looking tired and \u200copting not to bowl, the tourists had no answer to Head despite plugging away for some reward against the other batters.<\/p>\n

“From what I understand he’s pretty fit to bowl,” England bowling coach Jeetan Patel told reporters of Stokes. “I know he’s pretty knackered.”<\/p>\n

Opener Jake Weatherald (1), number three Marnus Labuschagne (13) and Cameron Green (seven) fell cheaply but stand-in number four Usman Khawaja joined Head in an important 86-run stand after Australia were 53 for two.<\/p>\n

Khawaja was caught behind for 40, slicing at the part-time spin of Jacks, a bonus wicket for England given it was a poor delivery.<\/p>\n

Green then nicked Josh Tongue to the slips where Brook took an excellent catch just above the grass, leaving Australia wavering at 155 \u200dfor four.<\/p>\n

With Australia’s lead only 240 runs at that point, England briefly had hope of limiting the damage.<\/p>\n

But it was not to be.<\/p>\n

Carey came to the crease in the form of his life having scored 106 in the first \u200dinnings and 63 in \u2060his previous knock in the second test \u2060in Brisbane, and he added another half-century as shadows crept across the ground.<\/p>\n

It capped another day of toil in the field for England following some brave batting early on.<\/p>\n

They had resumed on 213 for eight, their wafer-thin chances pinned on Stokes and tail-end partner Archer. Both raised half-centuries in a 106-run partnership in one of England’s better hours of the series.<\/p>\n

Archer celebrated his first test fifty with a single off Pat Cummins, adding to his five-wicket haul in Australia’s first innings.<\/p>\n

It took Mitchell Starc<\/a> and a lethal, wobble-seam delivery with the second new ball to break the partnership, the ball veering sharply off the seam to bowl a driving Stokes through the gate for 83.<\/p>\n

A furious Stokes exited with England still 97 runs short of Australia’s first innings 371.<\/p>\n

Archer (51) and number 11 Tongue (seven not out) trimmed the deficit by another 12 runs before Archer became Scott Boland’s third wicket with a nick to the slips.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ADELAIDE: Travis Head proved England’s nemesis once again as he scored his second century of the Ashes to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[6093,18761,11638,64,63,196098,35086,740,7191,31024,85,44867],"class_list":{"0":"post-358993","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-adelaide-oval","9":"tag-alex-carey","10":"tag-ashes-series","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-australia-vs-england-ashes-2023","14":"tag-australian-cricket","15":"tag-cricket","16":"tag-england-cricket-team","17":"tag-mitchell-starc","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-travis-head"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}