Bizarro version of the Australia batter is contradictory to the rest but emerges often enough to be part of the wholeThere are times when Steve Smith is surprised by a shot he has just played. Not surprised that it has worked so well, or badly, but that it has happened at all. He stares down at his hands, his bat, as though his body has betrayed him, like a rider might look down at a backfiring motorbike or an ill-tempered horse. There is Smith the vessel and Smith the occupant, acting out the concept of dualism for a live studio audience.That was Smith in Manchester yesterday. His first ball of the fourth Ashes Test was unremarkable: short without menace, one...
One of the batting greats showed his class again for Australia at the home of cricket with a century full of balance and defianceIt seemed fitting that even Steve Smith’s celebration of another brilliant, gripping sui generis hundred should become a little bit clipped and fraught and fussicky. The hundred had arrived in the right way too, with one of the thrillingly unbound, but still perfectly balanced cover drives that had decorated his innings.Smith’s cover drive is a remarkable thing. It shouldn’t really be possible. He is already opening his body up the other way as the ball is delivered, closing his left shoulder, gripping the bat hard with his bottom hand, shaping for the default leg-side nurdle. Continue reading...
Australian’s dominant century in the World Test Championship final against India strikes an ominous note before the AshesFrom time to time around the Oval press box, little English-accented groans of annoyance burbled through the quiet. “Oh God. Here we go again.” Steve Smith was the cause, across the first two days of the World Test Championship final. Through the tinted windows placed just behind the bowler’s arm at the Vauxhall End was the perfect view of him, ball after ball: setting up outside leg stump, stepping across, nudging off his pads for a run on his way to 121.For British scribes who covered their last home Ashes in 2019, it was simply Smith picking up where he left off. They...
The bowler’s pace and style will be sorely missed, as will the highly anticipated rematch with Steve Smith and companyIf you started following cricket recently, you might wonder why the fuss about Jofra Archer missing this year’s Ashes. A player with 13 Tests for England, the last well over two years ago, and 42 wickets averaging 31. Those who watched four years ago will know why Archer is imprinted on an Australian cricket consciousness as firmly as on England’s. His earlier work in Australia’s domestic T20 league had already introduced an incredible athlete in the field and a force with the ball. Then he showed up in the second Ashes match of 2019 in place of the injured James Anderson.Weeks...
When Australia lost their first wicket to the second ball of the day, things looked grim. Then Travis Head slammed the doorWhen you read back over the scorecard in years to come, it will look easy. A run chase of 76 is a formality. Done in little more than an hour, purring along at 4.14 runs per over? Standard. Except it wasn’t. Not when the first ball of the third morning exploded in a dust cloud like a Dakar rally jeep jumping a dune. Not when Ravichandran Ashwin dialled back the turn on the next delivery, just enough of it to flick the bat so softly that even Usman Khawaja didn’t know he was out.For the next 10 overs, Ashwin...