Sydney, Jan. 5 -- England batter Joe Root defended fellow teammate Jamie Smith for his dismissal in the first innings of the final Sydney Test, saying that the job is to "score runs, not to survive" and said that the team was just trying to get some extra cushion of runs before the new ball was taken.

Jamie's Ashes continued to get worse for him as he not only fell four runs short of what could have been his second fifty of the series, but also got out in a manner described by a commentator as "brainless", once again throwing his wicket away after a fine start.

Jamie backed away to smash a shoulder-high short ball over offside, but managed to find Scott Boland at deep cover, giving his wicket to part-timer pacer Marnus Labuschagne for a...