Sky Sports Cricket Podcast
The Ashes Daily: Bethell's maiden century gives England faint hope
07 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What were the highlights of Jacob Bethel's maiden century?
For a left start, that is from Crawley. Chris Wokes nails it to four. The Ashes alive and Test cricket alive. Ice in his veins, Pat Cummins has led his team to a famous victory. Yeah, he's got it! He gets it! England's captain Ben Stokes, while he is there, England have... Put the beer away, put the champagne on ice.
24 years of pain in Australia, finally they're beaten at home by England.
End of the fourth day, the Sydney Cricket Ground, and only one place to start today, Nass, and that is with young 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. We love this ground. England players love this ground. Jacob Bethel will always love this ground because this is where he came of age.
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 sanga car our mate did it as well but he should imagine it had been wicked keeping at that stage as well but his mum and dad graham and giselle were in the brawongle stand they were watching on other family as they were there as well so it was a very emotional moment although he remained pretty cool he seems a pretty cool customer to me
as 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 a bit of confidence or arrogance.
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Chapter 2: How did England's performance change after Bethel's innings?
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. And then you put that into his calmness and composure. If you compare it to someone like Ollie Pope, who he's coming in for, Ollie always looked frenetic at the crease.
I think Jacob Bethel played more forward stationery, 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 talking 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. You 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.
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 hundreds and it was one of his loveliest. And, you know, I had 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 um 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
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've got to come even further when you're coming from Barbados. So they came for the Melbourne Test. Well, they saw him make an impact, but that was like...
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Chapter 3: What emotions did Bethel's family experience during his century?
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 McCullum 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 proof that to reach this high ceiling you need to be playing cricket and I think the penny's 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 Tongue and Bethel. And I bet they're wishing they did at the start.
Absolutely. Both of them just coming into the side. Bethel for the fourth test, Josh Tongue for the third. We'll start with Tongue 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. 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 Stark got Crawley 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.
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Chapter 4: How does Bethel's batting style compare to other players?
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.
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. that 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. And 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.
I think the highest opening partnership is 46 balls between Crawley and Duckett this series. And obviously that has been a reasonable strength of England's and 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's Bethel, you're OK.
They 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 looked 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.
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