The Ashes LIVE: Huge blow for England as catastrophe strikes for skipper Ben Stokes with Australia properly on high

That’s the tonic for England after the sad scenes with Stokes leaving the ground.

A very disappointed Smith is clapped off after nicking a nice ball from Tongue that left him just enough.

Don’t want to harp on it but not giving the new ball to Tongue and having him into the attack first thing this morning is a head-scratcher.

The Mail’s cricket correspondent Lawrence Booth on a bitter blow for the Lions…

It’s the moment England fans have been dreading: Ben Stokes limps off the field after sending down the fourth ball of his 28th over. It takes a lot to remove Stokes from the fray, so we’ll have to assume that’s serious. The good news for England is that their next Test match is not until June. The bad news is they still have to take 13 Australian wickets to win this game, AND score plenty of runs in between. Both scenarios look even less likely now.

He’s taken his cap back with two balls left in the over and has had a chat to the umpire.

Looks like he’s injured his right groin and he’s in obvious discomfort as he heads off the ground, muttering to himself.

This could be a bitter blow for England, with Stokes definitely their best bowler in the match so far.

This is going to really turn the screws on Cameron Green.

Webster has reached his half-century from 64 balls, after making 50 at the same ground on his debut last year.

Webster is off the mark with two from his first ball of the day, a regulation loosener from Carse, who gets a smidgin of away movement on his second delivery, which is left.

Then he sends down a very wide, short one – where have we heard that before? – and Webster easily steers it down to the rope at third man.

‘You can’t get away with that in Test cricket,’ says Ricky Ponting.

Smith’s great placement is to the fore with the third ball of the over as he pierces the field at mid-on for two.

The skipper finds the rope with a cover drive on the last ball.

A far sparser crowd at the SCG today, with lots of empty seats.

Stokes is about to Steam in when Smith delays him, possibly over an issue with the sightscreen.

The England skipper sends one down wide outside off, it gets left, and the strains of Jerusalem ring out from the Barmy Army.

Yes, the bowling – especially from Matthew Potts – was often awful, and the decision to give the new ball to Potts and Carse instead of Stokes and Tongue was mystifying, but the Lions would be in a far better position if they’d held their catches.

First and worst, Will Jacks dropped a sitter from Travis Head, committing cricket’s cardinal sin by taking his eye off the ball as he panicked (pictured), thinking he was about to step on the boundary rope. He was three feet inside it. The Aussie was on 121 runs at the time and would finish on 163.

Brydon Carse missed a far tougher chance in the deep, then Zak Crawley couldn’t get Steve Smith with a diving effort when the skipper was on 13 runs. He is now on 129.

Jacks missed another in the final over before lunch, a very difficult caught-and-bowled chance in the last over before lunch.

It was England’s 17th dropped catch of the series.

Usman Khawaja’s last Test sees him geta rapturous reception at the SCG, England’s Matthew Potts on the verge of a horror record after a woeful day… read all that and more in the Mail’s Ashes Breakfast column.

Ollie Pope and Will Jacks collided with the score at 6-414 yesterday as they tried to field a stroke from Steve Smith.

Nothing wrong with that, happens all the time.

But Pope – who had been dropped from the batting line-up after a shocking tour – appeared to have a few angry words for his teammate as they went back to their positions.

Jacks appeared to be in the wrong, compounding an ugly day for him in the field after he dropped that chance to dismiss Travis Head, but the exchange pointed to tensions among the Lions as they endured a long, frustrating day near the end of a tour to forget.

One of the biggest storylines out of the Test reared its head after the stumps yesterday when Australia’s national broadcaster, the ABC, was banned from interviewing any of the home team’s stars.

The shocking move by Cricket Australia came about after former Test fast bowler Stuart Clark tore strips off the game’s top brass Down Under on the ABC’s coverage of day two of the match, enraging CA boss Todd Greenberg.

You can read all about it here…

Thanks for joining the Daily Mail for our coverage of the fourth day of play from the fifth Test.

We’ll resume with Australia on 7-518, leading by 134 runs, with Steve Smith sitting on 129 and Beau Webster on 42.