Ton-up Smith helps Oz dominate England in Ashes opener
BIRMINGHAM: Australia set England an imposing target of 398 to win the first Ashes Test ater the visitors declared their second innings on 487-7 late on the fourth day at Edgbaston on Sunday.
Steve Smith made 142, his second hundred of the match, in his first Test since he completed a 12-month ban for his role in last year’s balltampering scandal in South Africa.
Mathew Wade scored 110 as Australia piled on the runs against an England atack missing James Anderson, unable to bowl ater breaking down with a calf injury earlier in the match.
England will need to set a new national record if they are to achieve an unlikely victory. The most they have ever made in the fourth innings to win a Test is 332-7 against Australia at Melbourne, back in 1928/29.
Earlier, England finally saw the back of Steve Smith but only ater a second century in his comeback Test saw Australia compile a potentially match-winning lead in the Ashes opener at Edgbaston on Sunday.
Ashes-holders Australia, bidding to win their first Test series away to England in 18 years, were 356-5 at tea on the fourth day — 266 runs ahead — with the hosts a bowler down in the absence of James Anderson. Smith made 142 following his 144 in the first innings of the match — the former Australia captain’s first Test since the end of a 12-month ban for his role in last year’s ball-tampering scandal in South Africa.
Mathew Wade, in his first Test for nearly two years, was 86 not out ater puting on 126 for the fith wicket with Smith. Only three times have a side made more than 150 in the fourth innings to win a Test at Edgbaston.
Smith is just the fith Australia batsman to score a hundred in both innings of an Ashes Test, following Warren Bardsley (1909), Arthur Morris (1946/47), Steve Waugh (1997) and Mathew Hayden (2002/03).
Having reached lunch on 98 not out, Smith went to three figures in style when he cover-drove England paceman Stuart Broad for his 10th four in 147 balls faced. He celebrated by removing his bating helmet and waving his bat joyously towards the Australia changing room.
And while there was applause from a packed crowd, there were also renewed chants of “Crying on the telly, we saw you crying on the telly” in a reference to the emotional press conference Smith gave in Sydney ater he was sent home from South Africa.
England captain Joe Root brought himself on to bowl his part-time off-breaks and deployed Joe Denly’s occasional leg-spin in a desperate bid for wickets on a sluggish pitch. Wade, playing as a specialist batsman, with Australia captain Tim Paine behind the stumps, reverse-swept Root to complete a 70-ball fity. Wade was given out lbw to Broad by Wilson on 69 but his review showed the ball going over the top of the stumps.
The match was in the balance when Australia resumed on 124-3, a lead of just 34 runs, with Smith 46 not and Travis Head unbeaten on 21.
Smith, cleared of concussion ater being hit on the head by a Ben Stokes bouncer on Saturday, has now scored more than 1,000 runs in his past 10 Ashes innings.