NOW BAT LIKE HIM!
England must learn from centurion Smith to rescue first Test
EnGLAnD have been challenged to recapture the belief of their World Cup win as they try to save the first Ashes Test following another superb Steve Smith century.
The former Australia captain made 142 to go with his firstinnings 144 as the tourists set England an unlikely 398 to win here in Birmingham.
At stumps on the fourth evening they had reached 13 for none. England must try to bat out 90 overs for a draw — and assistant coach Graham Thorpe
said: ‘ The challenge is to soak it up for one more day. They have to go out there and use all the skill they have. It’s a fifth- day pitch and Australia have a very good spinner — but we have to have the belief we can do it.’
Asked if England could draw on their experience at the World Cup, where they came through four must-win games to lift their first 50- over trophy, Thorpe replied: ‘A lot of the guys have gained confidence from that, no doubt. It’s a different form of the game, but there is a belief they can deal with different situations.’
Only one of England’s last 33 home Tests has finished in a draw, and Smith was not in the mood for that sequence to end after becoming only the fifth Australian to score two hundreds in the same Ashes Test.
‘It was a dream comeback,’ he said. ‘To be able to score two hundreds in the first Ashes Test — that’s something I’ve never done in any cricket.
‘I probably never thought I’d be back at this level. To get an opportunity to play the first Test of an Ashes, I’m pretty grateful to be here. It feels like Christmas morning every morning getting to do this. It’s incredibly special to put us in the position we are now going into day five.
‘There’s quite a lot of rough that hopefully Gazza (Nathan Lyon) can exploit. For the quicks, the ball’s been getting soft pretty quickly, so it’s about attacking the stumps as much as we can, because day-five wickets have some tricks in them, and it goes up and down a bit.’
In both Australia innings, England needed a big shot from Smith to get his wicket. In the first, he had a slog with the No 11 at the other end. In the second, he threw his bat at a slightly wider one from Chris Woakes as Australia chased quick runs before the declaration.
Had he broken the spirits of the England bowlers?
‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘ That’s a question for them. Fortunately I was able to keep them out there for as long as I did.’
Smith denied he had been behaving as a de facto captain alongside Tim Paine, despite being banned from leadership roles until the end of March 2020 because of the sandpaper scandal.
‘It’s not on my radar,’ he said of the captaincy. ‘It’s about doing my job as a batsman and scoring runs. I’m able to help Tim in any way I can for the betterment of the team.’