TWO-UP AUSSIES

Happy to take bait, says Smith

STEVE Smith has urged England players to keep baiting him, adamant James Anderson’s barbs and the Barmy Army’s “white noise” can’t de- rail Australia’s Ashes pursuit.

The skipper didn’t hide his relief yesterday as Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc saved him from being haunted by his decision not to enforce the follow-on against the visitors in the Adelaide Test. Smith said Australia’s 120-run victory rendered the drama “irrelevant”.

England is fuelling its mission to defy history and bounce back from 2-0 down on a belief they scored a significant moral victory over Smith by getting into his head with relentless sledging which the Aussie ace unashamedly engaged in.

IT’S hard to find a pill that can knock over Steve Smith — be it a red one from 22 yards or a sleeping tablet at night.

The captain is a notoriously light sleeper and took a sleeping tablet on Monday after a few restless nights to help him get ready for the challenge of putting England to the sword in the second Test. It worked. Sort of. He got four hours of sleep, better than nothing but the fact that he didn’t get more, even with help, was a sign of how fast his mind was spinning with the pressures of a Test that almost went badly wrong

Would his decision not to enforce the follow-on backfire? Would England land the mother of all comebacks?

“I had to have a sleeping pill last night,’’ Smith said.

“It has been a pretty tough 24 hours if I’m being honest. All part of being captain of your country.

“You have to make difficult decisions and sometimes you’re going to make the wrong one. All part of experience. Hopefully I can learn something from this game.’’

The sleep factor is a fascinating but rarely mentioned issue for captains.

Mike Atherton tells people that when his lengthy tenure as English captain ended the biggest change in his life was not crowds or contracts or a less hectic diary.

It was sleep. For the first time in years he slept soundly.

Smith is an interesting study because his batting has reached a plane where no modern game plan — many have been tried — has curtailed his brilliance and he looks up for any sledging wars and on-field banter.

But, by his own admission, he is highly strung — a serial fidgeter with transparent body language — and you wonder whether a greater challenge than opposition bowlers will be his ability to cope with the relentless stresses of the job.

Allan Border was Test captain for a decade. Mark Taylor later said five would the rough limit for captains after Border and that proved generally true. But Australia is likely to need Smith for longer than that.

Smith escaped from this Test with Australia’s house in order. Life works in strange ways in cricket — sometimes you get things wrong and end up better off for your mistake.

It can be a great thing for a sporting team to stumble and bumble, get it wrong and still win, and Australia is a stronger unit for going the long way home here.

There is a wonderful evenness about the attack, which shares not just the workload but the pressure.

Mitchell Starc has dominated the wicket-takers’ list with 13, from Nathan Lyon (11), Josh Hazlewood (7), and Pat Cummins (7), all of them averaging fewer than 30 runs a wicket.

It’s hard to see Australia not winning in Perth … giving the captain the Ashes and, perhaps, a sound night’s sleep.