A few minutes before tea on day four, a cheer went up around the SCG, for Steve Smith had decided to try a spinner for the 40th over of England’s second innings.

Partly the cheer was for the identity of that spinner – cult hero Travis Head – but it was also evidence that another big Sydney crowd had tired of a constant diet of seam bowling.

Head’s first ball landed in the perfect spot outside Harry Brook’s off stump, disturbed the top of the pitch, and drew an inside edge that wasn’t too far away from presenting a bat-pad catch.

Beau Webster couldn’t contain his excitement after snaring Will Jacks for a duck.Credit: Getty Images

Later in the same over, another delivery burst through the top of the pitch and kicked at Brook, who, after a hurried inside edge, then kicked the ball away to ensure it did not backspin into the stumps.

These were all promising signs for Head, but after tea the pace procession continued. England got back into the game through Brook and the exceptionally organised Jacob Bethell, a left-hander who faced precisely one ball of off-spin turning away from his bat before he got to 99 on a pitch starting to deteriorate. Bethell went to his hundred by plonking another part-time spinner, Beau Webster, over wide long-on.

That alone is reason enough to question why there was no........

© Brisbane Times