Archer smirk after felling Aussie star ‘misunderstood’

JOFRA Archer says he was smirking at the thought of teammate Jos Buttler washing his car and not at a concussed Steve Smith when TV cameras captured him after the ball that ignited this year’s Ashes.

Archer, 24, has revealed t he walked into the Aussie dressing room immediately after their innings to check on the batsman, though he had already been taken to hospital.

“I’d already spoken to the physio to make sure he was all right,” Archer said. “I got a lot of grief for the way I reacted but a lot of people don’t know the full story.

“There was no reason to laugh at Steve. We’d just spent two months [as teammates] at the IPL. I did see how it looked but that’s why I am a bit frustrated, because seeing it on TV doesn’t show the full side.”

Archer was upset at the next Ashes Test at reports that his reaction on the Lord’s pitch was disrespectful. But the strike weapon has claimed that a bet he made with Buttler was the secret behind that polarising smile. “Not long before I hit Smith, I’d got the wicket of Tim Paine,” Archer told England great Nasser Hussain in an interview for SportsMail.

“Before he came in, Jos said, ‘If you get Paine out, you can have anything you want’.

“So I told [Buttler] my car was dirty. He said, ‘I’ll hire a bucket and a chamois and wash the car myself’.

“When I got Paine out, I forgot what Buttler had said and it was only when we were standing together later that I told him, ‘Jos, I think you’ve got to order that stuff now’.”

Archer said England would have “won the Ashes … probably by the third Test” without Smith and that fiery spell at Lord’s was the fastest he has bowled.