Warriors of lip at it again
ENGLAND spearhead Jimmy Anderson has resumed his slanging match with Steve Smith, saying Australia’s skipper was more interested in sledging than talking shop with his batting partner at Adelaide Oval.
Anderson and Smith have been swapping barbs — on the field and off it — throughout this Ashes series.
England’s leading wickettaker claimed the Australians were bullies before the second Test, shocking Smith given Anderson is “one of the biggest sledgers in the game”.
The pair were involved in a handful of heated moments in the day-night Test, where he scored 40 and six.
Smith suggested Anderson’s verbals only served to sharpen his focus but his nemesis rebuffed that claim in his newspaper column.
“We tried to get in Steve Smith’s bubble . . . we knew we were on top,” Anderson wrote in The Telegraph.
“We knew he was focusing on us because between overs he was supposed to go and talk to Usman Khawaja.
“He (Khawaja) was waiting for the chat from his captain but Smith went back to his own end because he wanted to speak to us instead.
“I sensed he was more bothered about what Stuart (Broad) and I were saying to him, which was not very interesting.”
He said Smith “bats out of the box so you have to think out of the box”.