SMITH: ENGLAND FACE MORE OF THE SAME IN ADELAIDE
▶ Australia captain confident side can build on 10-wicket win in first Test at Brisbane
England can look forward to further “aggressive” cricket in the second Test at Adelaide, Australia captain Steve Smith said, after his team found their mean streak to rout the tourists by 10 wickets at the Gabba yesterday to go one up in the series.
While Joe Root, the England captain, vowed his side would bounce back when the action starts on Saturday, Smith said his side would seek to maintain their momentum after openers David Warner and Cameron Bancroft got them to their target of 170 to win with more then two sessions to spare.
“We’re going to continue to play the same way we have – nice and aggressively,” said man of the match Smith, who scored an unbeaten 141 in his side’s first innings.
“We’ve played some really good cricket we had to fight after the first couple of days to get the result we’re after.
“No doubt there will continue to be some good, hard, aggressive cricket throughout the series.”
Root said his side’s strong resolve could allow them to level in Adelaide after they allowed a number of promising situations to slip away in Brisbane.
“We played some excellent cricket,” Root said.
“Unfortunately, when we got into good positions, we didn’t quite capitalise on it.
“If we had done that, it would have been a very different scoreboard.
“There are things we need to address and learn from this game.”
A small media storm was generated by England wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow’s “headbutt” greeting of Bancroft at a bar in Perth in the lead-up, an incident both teams played down.
Smith said his team had used the incident as ammunition to throw Bairstow off his game when he was batting on the field and added that the tactic had worked when the wicketkeeper was dismissed softly for 42 when he hit straight to third man.
The incident had proved to be a distraction to the England camp with their coach Trevor Bayliss saying staff would meet with players to potentially discuss tighter curfews.
Bayliss was angered by the episode that comes after all-rounder Ben Stokes’s arrest in Bristol for alleged assault during a night out, which is still being investigated by the police in England and led to his absence from the tour.
“We’ve just got to be smarter,” the Australian said.
Smith shrugged during his news conference when asked whether Australia’s exploitation of the Bairstow and Bancroft drama might fuel animosity between the teams.
“It’s always played hard out on the field. There’s a line you’re not to cross. I don’t think it makes any real difference,” he said.
The Adelaide Oval will offer a different challenge for both teams with the pink ball likely to move far more in the first day-night Ashes Test than at the Gabba.
England’s veteran pacemen Stuart Broad and James Anderson may be best placed to exploit the conditions, given how their bowling in seaming conditions on home turf in 2015 helped England win the Ashes, but Smith was also excited what his pace attack of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins might do under lights.
“The Adelaide wicket might bring some of their bowlers into the game a little bit, but having said that, it’s probably one of the quickest wickets in the country at night,” he said.
“We saw how effective our bowlers could be when this wicket quickened up a little bit. So it’s exciting.”
As first experiences as an Ashes captain go, Steve Smith will be thrilled with his, both with the bat and in the field in Brisbane.
The Australian’s unbeaten 141 in the first innings changed the match as his side went on to win the first Test by 10 wickets yesterday. The result has given Australia some momentum that England might well find impossible to take away.
Batting in Brisbane was not easy, exemplified by the fact that only three of Smith’s teammates passed 20 in the innings.
Realising his team was in serious danger at 76-4 on Friday, and staring at a potentially big first-innings deficit, Smith knuckled down to play a gritty knock, going against his normal aggressive style.
His innings lasted more than five hours and he faced 326 balls without offering up a chance. Smith was probably trying to get in the head of his counterpart Joe Root when he criticised England’s approach as “defensive” after he scored his hundred.
But he was right. England never put him under pressure. Granted, they made run-scoring difficult, but Smith had the patience, and the confidence in the lower order batsmen at the other end, to block away and carefully pick his scoring shots.
Root and England need to come up with a new plan for the second Test in Adelaide, which starts on Saturday.
Based on the evidence of Brisbane, Smith is in the form to emulate his recent predecessors in the captaincy role, Ricky Ponting (06-07) and Michael Clarke (13-14), by scoring backto-back hundreds in the first two Tests.
England do not need reminding that on both of those occasions the series result was 5-0, so Operation Smith has to be high on the list of Root and England coach Trevor Bayliss’s list of priorities.
Adding to England’s Smithshaped problems, the Australia captain got his tactics spot on in the field. England never got away from him when they batted, with the run-rate kept low.
Even at 246-4 on the second day, England were kept on a tight leash by Smith.
England’s score of 302 in their first innings was at least 75 below par. Although when Australia were struggling, it looked as if it would still give the visitors a first-innings lead.
Smith and the Australia lower order ensured that would not be the case.
Australia’s last five wickets, anchored by Smith, put on 153 runs after they had been teetering at 175-5.
At that stage they were 127 behind England, and if Root’s men had wrapped up the innings quickly it could have led to a completely different ending. Instead it was an unwelcome reminder of the 2013-14 whitewash for England.
In that series, England often had Australia in trouble in their first innings, only for wicketkeeper Brad Haddin and the likes of Mitchell Johnson to lead the counter-attack.
Australia averaged 212 for their last five wickets in the 2013-14 Ashes. It felt like history repeating itself on Saturday as Australia not only got close to England’s lead, but edged out an advantage.
England’s bowling simply lacked the punch to knock Australia over cheaply.
James Anderson and Mooen Ali may be carrying injuries, and if both men are limited for Adelaide then that could be a devastating blow to England’s chances, and ultimately their hopes of retaining the Ashes.
They now have to win at least one of the remaining four Tests to have any chance of leaving Australia with the urn still in their grasp. On the evidence of Brisbane they look unable to take 20 wickets.
The day-night conditions in Adelaide may be more helpful to Anderson and Stuart Broad, but the match is crucial to England’s fortunes.
They cannot afford to lose. A draw keeps them in it, a win would be a demonstration of the character that Root’s side have previously exhibited.
A defeat and two down with three to play becomes a near-impossible task for England to turn around.
With one innings Smith turned the tide. It is now up to Root and England to find a way to change it back.