If Australia do what they should by retaining the Ashes, and if they go on to win the series, it will feel thoroughly disingenuous to say that “Australia” did any such thing. Team sports are all about crediting the collective but in this case you can’t credibly do so. Australia’s captain, Tim Paine, started the series with a misfired attempt at a Winston Churchill quote; he could end it more accurately with “Never was so much owed by so many to so few”.
In this case “the few” are a party of one. Three Tests would have been lost without Steve Smith’s interventions, and the Test that he missed with injury was lost. Australian teams have been well beaten in England for 20 years, and in batting terms this is by far the weakest. With one change in personnel, the players eyeing a win would probably have endured a whitewash.
Of course, no Test match can be won without bowlers, and Australia’s interchanging squad of quicks have been tremendous. But even their finest work would have not have been able to win a match without runs. It was proven at Headingley, bowling out England for 67 but still not batting them out of the game.
On the fourth day in Manchester the lone and undying hand of Smith was at it again. Any player who had made 211 in the first innings might have expected to get some slack: Australia had been 28 for two when he walked out on the first morning, after which he helped add the small matter of 410.
But like a profligate mate with a thirst, his teammates were back a couple of days later wanting another bail-out. Even 196 ahead on the first innings, trouble at 16 for two gave way to worse trouble at 44 for four. England’s fast bowlers were firing, the huge temporary grandstand at Old Trafford was heaving, the atmosphere was charged, and there was the feeling that the visitors could be run through.
Not today, said Smith, as he has every other day. Where David Warner has been pinned and helpless against Stuart Broad, Smith defused every ball with apparent ease. His simple step across and block didn’t take any tweaking.
Seen from side on, Smith leans towards the bowler as he dips his knees in his preparatory stance, as though he can’t quite wait for the ball to arrive and is thinking of meeting it partway. If a spinner is bowling he often skips down to do just that. Up to the tea break he calmed the situation. After it, he started taking bowlers down.
Writing the Guardian’s live blog, a lot of readers email in theories on how to dismiss him. “A bouncer or two, then reverse-swing yorkers for Smith, to get him out,” was a single-line missive that I received on day one. Top stuff. If only teams playing against him had thought of that. Jim Maxwell on Test Match Special had a similar thought when Smith got in a tangle against a full ball from Broad, squeezing out a ricochet that rolled past his leg stump.
“That’s the spot to bowl to him, I suppose,” said Maxwell. “Just keep bowling yorkers.” The next ball, Broad attempted a repeat. It was on-driven to perfection: wide of the mid-on and straight of the midwicket, trailing the fielder behind it into the fence. Just keep bowling there indeed, Smith might have muttered. Please do.
Watching Smith against England now, it seems foregone. He cannot be stopped. On the fourth day at Old Trafford he knew a declaration was coming, so there was more expansiveness to his game. He swept Jack Leach hard, slapped and glided Jofra Archer, whipped and pulled Broad. The careful accumulator of the first innings rattled up 82 from 91 in the second.
When time was short and he really hit out, he gave up a catch in the deep short of his hundred. But that was the only way that England could get him: when Smith decided that he was willing to risk being got.
He now has 671 runs in the series from five hits; the collective of Warner, Cameron Bancroft, Marcus Harris, Usman Khawaja, Travis Head and Matthew Wade have 683 from 38. Smith has faced 998 balls. He saved a disaster and then set up the win at Edgbaston, staved off a match-losing collapse to draw at Lord’s, and has set up Old Trafford in prime position. Without him, this series could have been a humiliation. The difference is down to one man.
