The Ashes Daily: Bethell's maiden century gives England faint hope

0:00A good start, that is from Crawley. Chris Wokes nails it for four. The Ashes alive and Test cricket alive. Ice in his veins. Pat Cummins has led his team to a famous victory. Yeah, go! Down, he gets his goal. It's a landing. England's captain Ben Stokes, while he is there, England have hope. Put the beer away, put the champagne on ice. 24 years of pain in Australia. Finally, they're beaten at home by England.

0:32Nasser Hussain:End of the fourth day, the Sydney Cricket Ground and only one place to start today, Nass. And that is with John Jacob Bethel, who played quite magnificently. He did, and I just thought it was such a lovely moment there because he took quite some time to work his way through the 90s, as he should. He looked composed through the 90s as he did all day and then when he clipped it over mid-wicket and to see his mum with a big beaming smile on her face, dad holding back the tears, I thought that was such an emotional moment. First Test 100, obviously first Ashes 100, first First Class 100 and to do it at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

1:14We love this ground, England players love this ground. Jacob Bethel will always love this ground because this is where he came of age.

1:22Nasser Hussain:Absolutely. You never forget your first Test 100. I mean, as you say, it's his first First Class 100. So when he nudged one and got to 97, he was in completely uncharted territory. And there aren't too many out-and-out batters who will have scored their first Test 100 as their maiden First Class 100. Kumar Sangakara, our mate, did it as well, but he should imagine he'd have been wicket-keeping at that stage as well. but his mum and dad, Graham and Giselle, were in the Brewongle stand, they were watching on, other family were there as well, so it was a very emotional moment, although he remained pretty cool, he seems a pretty cool customer to me.

1:56As he did throughout, he has that combination of cool, calm but confident, I mean I did the interview with him a couple of days before the test match, and I asked him does he follow social media, and if he's had a good day, will he have a little sneak look at it, and he just turned to me and went, I won't have a look at it because I know I'm pretty good. I don't need other people telling me. And that might strike him a bit of confidence or arrogance. I don't have a problem with that at all. He has that sort of inner confidence that you can just see from the individual. Every time you see him, even in practice, he has that confidence.

2:29And then you put that into his calmness and composure. If you compare it to someone like Oli Pope who he's coming in for, Oli always looked frenetic at the crease. I think Jacob Bethel played more forward stationary forward defences today I'm not going to do it left-handed than Ollie Pope who was jabbing at the ball right hip coming through and I think that just sends a message to everyone of I'm in control but yet he got the tempo of his batting a lot of this England side has been talk about tempo too hard not hard enough I thought he just got it was an old-fashioned test match I mean the biggest confidence compliment I can give him was it was the sort of innings you'd expect David Gower to play.

3:10You bowl him a good ball, he'll defend, and you bowl him a bad ball, and he'll put it away. It was just an old-fashioned number three innings, and it was lovely to watch.

3:18Nasser Hussain:It's funny you mention David Gower, because I had a clear memory, really. I was here 35 years ago in an Ashes Test 1991 when David got a lovely 100, one of his best. You said it was one of the best you've seen. I was only 21 at the time, so these things always stay with you. but David got 18 test funders and it was one of his loveliest and you know I had a just an image of that I was 22 yards away for a lot of it because I got a few as well that day but obviously it was further away this time in the press box but I had so many little flashbacks to that obviously left-handed curly hair blonde but not really blonde but you know almost and so yeah I had a few flashbacks and you know and the way that he played yeah and you know the family as well and the backstory what will they be like I mean they must have been so nervous watching that how proud will they be well it's a mad keen cricketing family his grandfather Arthur played for Barbados his dad Graham played a lot of club cricket high level club cricket in Barbados and in England actually played with Joe Root's dad up at Sheffield Collegiate so it's a cricketing family and it is a long journey from Barbados I mean it's a long journey from England but you got come even further when you're coming from Barbados.

4:35Nasser Hussain:So they came for the Melbourne test. Well, they saw him make an impact but that was like a gambler's innings on a you know, just a ridiculous pitch wasn't it, where you had to take your chances. This was a proper high class test match innings and obviously now for the foreseeable future it's put to bed that question mark over number three. But it comes with just a hint of regret doesn't it, about what might have been both this tour and in the last 12 months. Yeah it's a sort of tick and a negative for the England hierarchy and management because they brought him in if you remember not only in New Zealand but they brought him in at number three a position he hadn't batted and he looked really good and that was a real tick for Key and McCollum and Stokes and obviously himself and then he goes missing doesn't play enough cricket he stays at the IPL he by admission should have played more domestic cricket more first class cricket and he lost rhythm he played that chaotic innings and game against India at the oval and just just proof that to reach this high ceiling you need to be playing cricket and I think the pennies dropped for him now it needs to drop throughout English cricket and in particular this management that if people are going to get better the only way is by having match practice now I don't know who you would have started with at the beginning of the series A lot of people would have gone Pope, but right now they've had two people actually here that didn't start the series in Tun and Bethel.

6:04And I bet they're wishing they did at the start. Absolutely.

6:07Nasser Hussain:Both of them just coming into the side. Bethel for the fourth test, Josh Tong for the third. We'll start with Tong because that's really where the day started. England A had a horrendous start because Ben Stokes went off after just 10 balls with an adductor strain. strain he limped out to bat late in the day but was obviously discomforted I can't see that he's going to take the field tomorrow so his tour is done isn't it it is and obviously if there is a miracle tomorrow and Bethel bats well with the tail and they get up towards 160 180 you're going to need your most accurate bowler because I thought actually Australia will come on to our Australia bowl but I thought with the new ball after start got crawly those cracks at Sydney they didn't quite get their lengths right because there were a lot of balls the ball that hit Bethel on the head and went over slips there were a lot of balls flying off a length but then when the ball went soft that disappeared so I think they may miss Stokes the bowler tomorrow but they then had to go to tongue and a bit of spin but I thought tongue bowled and he got Steve Smith again well they got him again that's the fifth time in first class cricket now four times in test cricket and And he's another tick in the talent ID box for this current regime in the same way that Beto was.

7:19Nasser Hussain:Because when Tong was first picked from Worcestershire out of county cricket, I can't think of anybody who was saying, you know, Josh Tong should be your man. And yet now you'd probably say he's the first choice fast bowler because he's now got, what, 15 wickets at 21s here in the ashes. Some helpful pitches, but he's done pretty well. And he clearly just worries Smith, doesn't he, with the angle that he creates from his arm, which is beyond the perpendicular. Yeah, I mean, Smith is great in lining bowlers up, but he can't line him up. He's a problem solver. If there's another battle in another action series, by then Smith would have tried to solve that problem.

7:55But it's a good combination. If you're getting good players out and you are mopping up the tail, that is a good combination. Your stats will always be healthy. There have been some cricketers and bowlers that just come on and get wickets at the end. But what you really want to see, and we talked about stats and comparing Boland yesterday to someone like Kars, the stats aren't that different. But actually, when you watch, you know that Boland will get good players out as well. And I think that's the thing that Tung has in his locker. He will produce good deliveries to get good players out front.

8:28Nasser Hussain:So England had a pretty good morning, really. They knocked the last three wickets over in an hour or so, and then were 80 for one at lunch. What did you make of the Crawley dismissal as an opener? First of all, I thought it came back a long way. I think it was a combination of the swing in the air and then it seemed to nip off the pitch as well. So I didn't think it was a horrendous leave. It wasn't a good leave because he ended up being LBW. But I could see exactly why he left that. And I thought he was a bit stiff. It was a very marginal call. But it's first over again. His tour has ended pretty much how it began.

9:06Nasser Hussain:With two first over dismissals to start. and that's how he's finished. 270 runs, which is not a bad return after the pair, but it's still 270 at 27. It is, and obviously he has batted on some spicy pitches in this series, but so has Travis said. I know it's an unfair comparison, but so has Travis said, and look at his stats. And that just worries me about Zach Crawley. I think if Zach plays 90 test matches, I think he'll average 31. I think his first-class career, he'll average 32. I hope he proves me wrong. I hope he goes on and kicks on. But you keep hoping that. And he has the same stats wherever he plays, whatever he does.

9:45And the question is, is that good enough for England? And that was the problem at the beginning of this tour, where they lost this Ashes series. There were question marks about Crawley and there were question marks about Pope. And when two of your top three, you're a little bit fingers crossed about, you're not going to win many Ashes series like that.

10:04Nasser Hussain:I think the highest opening partnership is 46 balls between Crawley and Duckett this series. Obviously, that has been a reasonable strength of England's. They were looking to that as a strength to get them off to good starts. But if you're the number three in this side, you're on your marks, ready to go. Yeah. As long as that number three is Bethel, you're okay. I've had two good partnerships, wasn't it? With Bethel and Duckett, I think they put on 80-odd. And then I thought Brook played well as well. Duckett look a bit better but again I think five times now he's fallen between 20 and 42 highest score 42 today in the series but a lot of starts and wasted starts yeah which you know as an opener especially here in Australia you're going to get your handful of low scores you got when you get in you got absolutely I mean even look at look at someone like Joe Root who's got a couple of hundreds but either side of there there's been low scores but he's got a couple of hundreds so If you're going to get a start and you see off Mitchell Stark, you've got to go on and kick on.

11:05So he's had a very disappointing tour, both as a batter and obviously his fielding. I would more, at the moment, my gut feel is more on an upward curve eventually for Duckett. Crawley concerns me over a long period of time. He's sort of just stagnating and being the same cricketer that we've seen for quite a few years. I think Duckett can bounce back from a poor Ashes tour. So the only thing I'll say about Beffle, and he was involved in a run out with Jamie Smith later, and I'm an expert on this subject, sometimes the running between the wickets, there's a bitter ball watching with Duckett and then with Jamie Smith.

11:42That's something you've just got to keep an eye on.

11:45Nasser Hussain:Harry Brook, I thought, got the right balance between risk and reward and defence and attack. Today, Wiljax didn't. No, on the back, I mean, firstly, it was... You think he was being a good team mate. I know Jamie Smith's at Surrey. He was such a horrendous shot. Mine's worse. Take the focus away from Jamie Smith. There's been a good team, mate, and there's been a really good team. You've got a lad at the other end who's just got 100, and he's at the other end grinding out a score. I've just seen Bo Webster turn one sharply to get rid of Harry Brook. I have no problem with the thought that Webster's a part-time off-spinner.

12:25Nasser Hussain:At some stage, we want to try and put pressure on him. but you've just seen one turn big. At least just have a little look. Second ball, hacking it into the deep. I know, and you probably know that Webster, because he's a part-timer, is going to give you a couple of freebies to it. He's going to drag a couple down, and the pitch is spinning, and you have to balance risk and reward. You don't want to just pod forward and glove it to short leg, but as you say, get in. Give yourself a bit of a chance. The lad at the other end has shown what you can do if you get in. It's a quick scoring ground. Give yourself a little bit of a chance.

12:59And then, as with this England side...

13:01Nasser Hussain:You said you're an expert. Whose fault was the run out? Well, half a dozen of one, half a dozen of the other, wasn't it? I think he sold him a bit of a dummy because it was a stutter, a start and a go. And I think that's what he does a little bit, Beth. He looks and then looks and then there was a stutter and Jamie Smith just went too far down. I mean, he will never look Marnus Labashain in the eye again. Both times, once bounced out and then they bring Labashain on for him and Labashain with ball in hand runs him out. So at that stage, the game is now turning. Ben Stokes hobbles out. He looked incapacitated and he looked like a walking wicket, to be honest.

13:38Nasser Hussain:And just throwing it forward, 119 on now, eight wickets down. What could give England a sniff of a chance tomorrow on a fifth-day Sydney pitch? There's a few things to factor in. I think they need 180. I keep going back to that game we won here in 2003. 2.20 Australia got very similar pitch to this you look at the scores very similar it started to just burst the top and some uneven bounce but that's mainly I think with the new ball so firstly they got to get to 1.80 that's a long way away because they'll spread the feel for Bethel Australia have a new ball due in not many overs and that will be hard work but then they've got no stokes with the ball we wouldn't think he has had lords we wrote him off completely and then he ran up and bowled a 10 over spell or something don't look like that today today for tomorrow but uh you know i'd give the new ball to tongue definitely cast needs to be better with that new ball and then they've got potts who's really struggling and they've got a part-time spinner now if if lion was playing here this week this would have been our end of tour wrap this game would have been done would have been dusted lion would have bowled england out by now so jacks maybe to drag it back from that shot today.

14:52May have to spin a web tomorrow.

14:54Nasser Hussain:And maybe Bethel can just top a perfect game by spinning England to victory on the fifth day. Who knows? That miracle is a long way off. But the fourth day here is a day that Jacob Bethel will never forget. A maiden Test Match 100 at the Sydney Cricket Ground.