The last time Steve Smith came to play in Kennington, he was a 24-year-old without a Test century to his name, still finding his way in Australia’s middle order. That was in 2013. Cricket moves quickly these days, and a lot has changed in those two years, not least Smith himself. He returned as one of the leading batsmen in the world, ranked No3 now, and only recently deposed from the top spot by Joe Root.
Smith made his first ton in that very match in 2013, 138 in a strange game in which England gave debuts to both Chris Woakes and Simon Kerrigan, and Michael Clarke infuriated his own management with a generous declaration, spared in the end only by the bad light on the fifth evening. It seems unlikely England will come so close to winning this time.
Back then Smith was ranked the 48th best batsman in the world. Two years on, to the very day, Smith made another ton, his 11th. Each and every one of them scored, oddly enough, in the first innings of a Test. They say he is a man who likes to make a statement when he bats, a trait which will serve him well when he becomes captain. Certainly he seemed intent on making one here.
Smith’s unusual technique, that sideways shuffle across the stumps, often seems to lure bowlers into thinking that they should be able to get him lbw. But his hand-eye co-ordination is so sharp that he is seldom out that way. He has only been dismissed lbw three times, in fact, by fast bowlers in his Test career.
England cottoned on. And so throughout the summer, they have concentrated on bowling wide of Smith’s off-stump, reckoning that he is never far away from a loose shot, and a catch in the slips or covers, that he is prone to reaching for balls he should probably leave. They have got him out cheaply caught behind in each of his four innings at Edgbaston and Trent Bridge.
Here, Smith seemed to have made an adjustment. He has been taking a smaller step across his stumps. More important still, through Friday’s morning session he batted with admirable, almost excessive, self-restraint. Smith started on 78 not out, and stayed there for the first half-hour, right through the first seven overs of the day.
A little like Chris Rogers and David Warner on Thursday, he seemed almost too keen to make a point of playing patiently, as though he wanted to prove to his coaches and team-mates that he was capable of doing it. Presumably Darren Lehmann and Michael Di Venuto, Australia’s batting coach, are getting a little tired of labouring the point.
Smith finally scored off his 24th ball, with a four through cover off one of many wayward deliveries bowled by Mark Wood. It brought up Australia’s 300. And then he retreated back within himself. So much so that it looked for a while as though his partner Adam Voges, who was 47 not out at the start of play and hardly the most aggressive of batsmen, was going to overtake him, maybe even beat him to a hundred.
You can understand why Smith so loves to play at the wide ones, since when he connects he hits them so sweetly. There is a distinctive rhythm to his batting. He bobs his knees, once, twice, steps across, waves his bat like he was about to use it to cast a fly into a trout stream, and then, snap, he swings.
After an hour he finally allowed himself to play at an errant delivery from Steven Finn, and the ball whistled away past extra cover for four. It was the kind of shot that makes spectators sigh. It took Smith into the 90s.
But soon after Ben Stokes got Voges, lbw with an inswinger, and then the game stopped for drinks. The interruption seemed to break Smith’s concentration. First ball back he slashed at a short, wide delivery from Finn, and the top edge flew through to Jos Buttler, who took the catch.
Smith turned, furious with himself, and stalked off towards the pavilion. He was halfway there when the replay on the big screen showed that Finn’s front foot had been almost four inches past the line. A no-ball, the first of many bowled on the day. Reprieved, Smith returned, and resumed.
Only now he seemed more nervous than he had before, as though, rather than feeling lucky to have been given another chance, he was worried that he was going to make another mistake. It took him 27 balls to make the eight runs he needed for his century. Time enough for Voges’s replacement, Mitchell Marsh, to come and go again, caught off the outside edge. The 100th run came, at last, after Moeen Ali had come on. Smith was so busy watching the ball that it was a little while before he thought to celebrate.
It was only when he had made absolutely sure that Peter Nevill was not going to try and come back for a second run that Smith took off his helmet and waved his bat, first towards the crowd, then towards the players in the dressing room. Relieved, he belted his very next ball, also from Ali, back down the ground for a six. Soon after lunch, Smith flicked a single away through mid-wicket.
It was his 481st run of the series, and so meant that he had overtaken Rogers as the leading run-scorer of the summer, most of those in just three innings, having made 215 and a 58 at Lord’s, and now 143 here.
.png?w=600)
