Patient Smith sends reminder to Foakes
When Surrey and England wicketkeeper Ben Foakes handed the gloves to a 21-year-old, he could not have expected that they would be filled with such aplomb. Foakes’s deputy, Jamie Smith, scored an unbeaten 234 against Gloucestershire to consolidate Surrey’s position at the head of the championship table.
Smith entered when Surrey, sent in, were tottering at 37 for three on a greenish pitch and against an attack featuring Mohammad Amir, the Pakistan pace bowler of chequered past. Smith was not dismissed in 9½ hours as he saw Surrey through to a total of 603 – a reminder to Foakes that the standard of batting among wicketkeepers carries on rising, and he will have to keep up to retain his England Test place. Smith more than doubled his overnight score of 111, reaching 200 off 400 balls and finishing on 234 off 430 balls, his fifth and by far his highest first-class hundred.
With Jordan Clark – far too good an all-rounder to be No9, but such is Surrey’s batting depth – Smith shared a county eighth-wicket record stand of 244. Keeping the ball on the ground, Smith hit 34 fours and no sixes.
But what was perhaps the most exceptional feature of Smith’s innings was how he played himself in on the second morning with a maturity beyond his years and a patience that is unfashionable.
He may have an ugly squat at the crease before the ball is delivered, but thereafter his batting, drilled at Whitgift, is orthodox.
Sam Curran, Smith’s not-out partner overnight, exhibited no such patience. England’s one-time allrounder, not yet 24, threw his bat at an early ball angled across him and missed, then tried another cover drive and edged to gully.
Having Jonny Bairstow at No6 as keeper/bat and Curran at seven might be an attractive option for England when Ben Stokes cannot bowl and another all-rounder is needed, but Curran has to make centuries to bat so high – and his first, in any format, still eludes him.
New Zealand’s Colin de Grandhomme was bowled first ball by a corker, and a no-ball, from Ryan Higgins, then dropped at first slip by Miles Hammond, adding to the four chances Gloucestershire had missed on day one.
Amir was the unluckiest of the home side’s bowlers, finishing with nought for 80 on his Gloucestershire debut, but bowling at times with his old pace from over and round the wicket.
The home side’s attack contained three left-arm pace bowlers, which might be a record, but no off-spinner to exploit their footmarks.
Surrey, in trying to dismiss Gloucestershire twice in the next two days, have the off-breaks of Will Jacks, preferred to Amar Virdi.
Clark’s 137 muscled his second first-class hundred off 177 balls with 15 fours and two sixes.
Gloucestershire had sent Surrey in to face four seamers, but their three spinners ended up bowling more than 45 overs because Smith batted like a young master.