Khawaja's maiden Ashes ton reduces Australia's deficit

Australia piled on more misery on England courtesy Usman Khawaja's maiden Ashes hundred and Steven Smith's fifth fifty-plus of the series, reducing the deficit to just 69 by Lunch on Day 3 of the fifth and final Test at the SCG.

Resuming from their overnight score of 193 for 2, Australia added 84 runs to their total on the third morning while the Englishmen endured tough 110 minutes since the play began. However, the visitors hit back in the closing minutes of the session by taking out Smith just 17 short of what would have been his fourth hundred of the series, and could have seen the back of Khawaja too had Mason Crane not overstepped.

While Smith added some quick runs in the morning to march on to yet another fifty in the series, Khawaja started cautiously. Needing nine to bring up his first-ever hundred against England, and sixth in Tests overall, Khawaja reached the landmark in the 75th over of Australia's innings, with a couple of Moeen Ali. He then went on to register the 150 of his partnership with his skipper Smith and, with that, also completed 2000 Test runs by glancing Stuart Broad to the fine leg fence in the second over after the new ball was taken.

In the first hour, the only time England looked close to getting a breakthrough was through a well-directed short ball from Broad that smashed into Khawaja's hands at chest height and ballooned up. But, as luck would have it, it landed safely away from the gully fielder.

Smith seemed on course for his record fourth hundred of the series but fell 17 short of the milestone when he chipped a return catch to Moeen, giving England the breakthrough they'd been desperate for since the second evening. The Australian captain was only 13 shy of aggregating 700 runs in an Ashes series, a feat only two men - Don Bradman and Mark Taylor - have previously achieved. The wicket - completely against the run of play - was just the fourth of the series for Moeen, and ended a brilliant 188-run stand between the pair.

Australia would have suffered another blow before Lunch when Root and Crane sent a not-out LBW decision against Khawaja upstairs but the replays showed the debutant had no part of his foot behind the crease and it was eventually declared a no-ball. Had Crane got it right, Khawaja would have been his maiden Test wicket for the ball-tracking showed the ball to be crashing into the stumps alright.

Nonetheless, Khawaja went into Lunch on Day 3 with a fine 132 not out against his name.

Brief scores: Australia 277/3 (Usman Khawaja 132*, Steve Smith 83; Moeen Ali 1-68) trail England 346, by 63 runs.