England 1-8 (Alastair Cook 7*, James Anderson 1*, Mitchell Johnson 1-3) trails Australia 326 (Steven Smith 115, Brad Haddin 75, Shane Watson 43, Ben Stokes 6-99) by 318 runs with nine wickets in hand.

Steven Smith blasted a ton and shared a valuable partnership of 127 runs with Brad Haddin for the 6^th wicket while the hosts grabbed an early wicket of England.

The Kangaroos smashed 326 runs after 76 overs in their first innings and the tourists managed eight for the loss of one wicket in six overs.

The fifth and final Ashes Test commenced on Friday, January 3, 2013, at Sydney Cricket Ground.

Earlier, Alastair Cook, the captain of England, won the toss and preferred to field first. The Aussies lost their first wicket at 22 when Shane Watson got together with Chris Rogers and took the score to 51. The English quick bowler, Ben Stokes, was unplayable and removed the latter for 11 while the Australian skipper, Michael Clarke became his next victim for 10. Watson surrendered for 43 and the home side was reeling at 5-97 in 28.1 overs.

Steven Smith along with Brad Haddin took responsibility of stabilising the innings with determination. They kept the scoreboard moving and the ball visited the rope at regular intervals. Haddin was the most aggressive of the two and reached his 17^th Test fifty in the 49^th over. Smith attained his half century with a four and the association was dislodged at 225 when Brad Haddin departed for 75. The first kept on enhancing with little partnerships and dispatched his third Test hundred with another boundary. Steven Smith was finally gone for 115 off 154 balls with 1 six and 17 fours as Australia powered 326 in their first innings.

Ben Stokes was the star of the day with six wickets, Stuart Broad held two whereas James Anderson and Scott Borthwick shared one wicket each.

England went down by one wicket when Michael Carberry was caught superbly by Ntahn Lyon off Mitchell Johnson at 6. Alastair Cook and James Anderson remained unbeaten for 7 and 1 as the visitors scored eight runs in their first innings.

Australia still has an edge of 318 runs in the first innings and the depleted batting line up of England will have to come out of their shells in the final game.