Ashes: Jacob Bethell's brilliant 142 keeps England alive, but Australia close in on victory

England put up stoic resistance in their second innings. This came mainly through 22-year-old Jacob Bethell, who claimed his maiden Test century and finished the day unbeaten on 142.

In the morning, centurion Steve Smith and Beau Webster resumed Australia's innings at the crease and batted freely throughout the opening session. It was aided by the absence of England captain Ben Stokes, who suffered a groin injury and limped off in just the second over of the day. He'd bowled an impressive 28 overs off the back of a very busy series.

Smith finally fell for 138 to a corker of a delivery from Josh Tongue that grabbed his outside edge. The hosts' innings come to a swift end after that, leaving Webster stranded on 71, but more importantly, 183 runs ahead.

England were put on the back foot immediately when Zak Crawley missed a straight one that crashed into his pad right in front and he departed for 1.

Ben Duckett and new man Jacob Bethell were solid partners. The pair put on 81 before Duckett unfortunately chopped one on from Michael Neser, eight runs short of a half century that has eluded him all series.

The metronomic Scott Boland then pinned down Joe Root. Despite coming off a brilliant 160 in the first innings, the veteran scraped around for his six runs before Boland seamed one back and trapped Root on the crease, leaving England 117/3.

Harry Brook and resolute Bethell rebuilt, taking advantage of a tiring Australian attack in the Sydney heat. They scored briskly to put on a 100 partnership during which Bethell got to the magic number by skipping down the pitch and dispatching an off-break from Webster over long on.

But the tall seamer-turned-spinner struck back as he picked up two wickets in three balls. First, he got one to turn prodigiously and trapped Brook (42) in front. That brought Will Jacks to the crease, who went for the big tonk on just his second delivery and holed out to Cameron Green in the deep.

Jamie Smith calmed things down, but a disastrous miscommunication with Bethell saw him run out at the non-strikers end for 26. The injured Stokes was clearly limited in movement and there would be no heroics for him this day, nicking off to that man Webster. Brydon Carse also fell to Boland, leaving Bethell man-alone with Matthew Potts at the end of the day's play.  

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