P SPIN AT THE TEST

STEVE SMITH resumed his love affair with England’s bowlers after falling for just 12 in the first Test at Brisbane. By making 93, he took his tally in 50 Ashes innings to 2,905 runs at an average of 64, with 11 hundreds and 10 fifties. He has now fallen seven times to Jimmy Anderson. Among England bowlers, only Stuart Broad, with eight dismissals, has removed Smith more often in Test cricket. But three of Anderson’s seven came in 2010-11, when Smith was picked as a leg-spinning

all-rounder and batted as low as No 7. This was also only the second time Anderson had trapped him lbw, after Perth four years ago, when Smith made the small matter of 239. RORY BURNS has been dismissed in single figures eight times in 18 Test innings in 2021. Seven times he has faced fewer than six balls. CHRIS WOAKES’S figures of 23.4-6-103-1 widened the gap between his home and away Test records. In England, he has 94 wickets at a fine average of 22. Abroad, it’s 28 wickets at 52.