Centuries from Steve Smith and Travis Head have headlined a historic day at the Sydney Cricket Ground, which saw the duo smash long-standing records held by cricket's all-time greats.
In front of an atmospheric crowd wearing pink to celebrate 'Jane McGrath Day', the two batters rewrote the history books as Australia entered the final two days of the 2025/26 Ashes Series with a 134-run lead against England.
Just shy of 100 runs on Day 2, it didn't take long for Travis Head to record his third century of the series.
Following 123 in Perth and 170 in Adelaide, Head became the first Australian opener since Matthew Hayden in 2002-03 to hit three centuries in a home Ashes series and surpassed Sir Donald Bradman as the fourth-fastest 150 in Ashes history.
Scoring 163 from 166 deliveries, which included 25 boundaries, it seemed as though he was set to register his maiden double century, but it wasn't to be after being given out minutes after lunch.
"It's probably 400 more than I expected. [A] new role obviously in this series. Felt like I'm batting well. Nothing's ever guaranteed, but yeah, I just want to try and be as consistent as I can be," Head, the frontrunner to be named the Player of the Series, said on Fox Cricket.
"No doubt at the start of the series I wouldn't think that I'd peel together three hundreds and be 600.
"It's normally Smithy or Marnus and I sort of come in and peel them off at the end and put the cherry on top. But, yeah, it's been nice to lead, I guess, from the front a little bit and take a bit of ownership.
"And I'm just pleased with where I've been getting in, getting big scores. So, again, today with the position that we're in on a wicket that looks like it would deteriorate in the first innings is so important.
"So, yeah, to be able to do a job in the fifth test of the summer as well, we haven't played a lot of cricket, but mentally when you're going into these things and you're prepping up for it, you want to perform throughout the whole series.
"So, again, it's very pleasing to be able to get some runs in the last test as well."
Coming into the match at a crucial point, Australia's captain celebrated his fifth century at the SCG en route to overtaking Allan Border as the second-highest run scorer at the venue - he now only sits behind Ricky Ponting.
Feeling comfortable at the crease, Smith ended the day's play with 129 to his name as he continued to show why he is still recognised as one of the best batters in the world at present.
Delivering a series of glorious drives, hooks and cuts, Smith surpassed Sir Jack Hobbs to become the second individual with the most Ashes runs of all-time, now only sitting behind Bradman.
As records continued to break, the retiring Usman Khawaja was unlucky not to create his own piece of history.
Announcing his retirement in the lead-up to the match, Khawaja only managed to make 17 runs before Brydon Carse took his wicket.
The dismissal - arguably his last - puts an end to an amazing career that saw him move in and out of the side throughout his time in the baggy green and create a long-lasting opening partnership with David Warner, who retired exactly 24 months ago.
Averaging 43.39 in the red-ball format, his tenure in the Australian side comes to a close after 87 matches in which he scored 6206 runs, made 16 centuries and 28 half-centuries and became a pinnacle member of the team.
Michael Neser (24), Alex Carey (16) and Cameron Green (37) also fell during the day's play as Beau Webster remains at the crease with Smith, not out on 42.
