SMITH’S KNOCK
Captain puts on a masterclass to fire up Brisbane crowd and pile pressure on Root
STEVE SMITH kissed the badge on his helmet, then thumped the one on his chest. It was an appropriate double act: Australia’s captain had thrown heart and soul into an innings for the ages, holding England at bay and exhorting his team-mates to do the same.
There may even have been a touch of anger. At 209 for seven in response to England’s 302, Australia’s unassailable record at the Gabba was looking distinctly assailable. But by the time he walked off with an unbeaten 141 — no one captaining for the first time in an Ashes Test has scored more — they l ed by 26. On such high- class performances do series hinge.
The impact of Smith’s innings reverberated around this colosseum of a stadium, a place where the locals are never happier than when they are smelling the blood of several Englishmen.
For one thing, it dealt with the stomach-churning possibility that England would become the first visiting team since India 14 years ago to claim a first-innings lead — one of many stats brandished by locals as proof that the Gabbatoir is more than just a cricket ground.
For another, it put overs into the legs of England’s bowlers, encouraging rumours that both Jimmy Anderson and Moeen Ali had niggles. The ECB insisted they did not, but claimed that Moeen, n, who bowled only four overs ers between lunch and tea, a, had a blistered finger.
Perhaps most crucially, it gave Australia’s bowlers a small but telling cushion as they embarked on their third-evening assault in n front of a crowd of nearly rly 34,000. The Barmy Army rmy feared the worst. After all, they have been here before.
And so it came to pass: England’s second innings was not yet four overs old when Alastair Cook, on seven, hooked Josh Hazlewood to fine leg, and Mitchell Starc judged a tumbling catch to perfection, condemning England’s former captain to a match aggregate of nine, his worst in a Test for two years.
The dismissal had shades of Cook’s fatal flap at Mitchell Johnson at Adelaide four years ago. But by then his team were mentally done and dusted, already on the brink of completing the second leg of a 5-0 whitewash. This time, there was a game up for grabs. Having watched Smith leave everything short until he had three figures, Cook was unable to resist before he had two. His stellar 2010-11 series remains an anomaly in an otherwise mediocre Ashes record.
England still trailed by nine when Hazlewood squared up James Vince, who edged to Smith — of course — at second slip, his firstinnings 83 a distant memory. Australia were cock-a-hoop.
In roared Starc to land a blow on the helmet of Joe Root, who was yet to score and understandably rattled. The sight of David Warner scurrying over to offer his condolences was as welcome as a cup of cold sick. s But it was the scenario S Smith ith h had spent the previous eight and a half hours constructing.
England had not bowled badly, far from it. They restricted Australia to 48 runs in a morning session which produced three wickets, and all told kept them to 2.51 runs an over. Since England themselves had attracted mockery for scoring at 2.58 during their own first innings, this was a moral victory of sorts.
But it’s real victories that interest Root, and Smith’s tour de force was spoiling his fun.
For much of the day, the Australian reply looked as if it would die a slow death. Stuart Broad outthought Shaun Marsh with a slower delivery in the sixth over, before he and Anderson each struck with the second new ball: Tim Paine caught behind off Anderson for 13, Starc caught and bowled by Broad for six. England’s two warhorses would eventually finish with a heroic combined analysis of 54-20-99-5.
But they could have done with some help, because Australia were there for the taking, seven down and still 93 behind. Were England laying the basis for their the first Test win here si since 1986- 87? Smith would not countenance the possibility.
A s P a t C u mmi n s knuckled k down, Smith b buckled up. England tr tried to bore him out, eith either hanging the ball outside of off stump or sending it over his head, with Jake Ball in particular used as an enforcer. The tactic — another sign of Root’s pragmatic streak — had limited him to 17 runs before lunch. But it meant only one man was capable of getting him out: Smith himself.
By the time he eased Broad through extra cover, he had completed the slowest of his 21 Test hundreds, and probably the most impressive.
Chris Woakes lifted English spirits when Cummins edged low to slip for a Test-best 42. But he and Smith had added 69, and Australia were only 27 behind. Hazlewood helped take them to within four before playing round a straight one from Moeen, and Smith’s last- wicket stand of 30 with Nathan Lyon completed the recovery.
England had arrived in the belief that they possessed the stronger lower order, yet Australia’s last three wickets added twice as many as their last six. As England left the field, the force was with Australia.
Hazlewood made the most of a pitch that has been kinder to the new ball than the old, and it required some defiant defence from Mark Stoneman and Root to stave off more damage before the close.
England were left needing all that and much more on the fourth day if they were to escape Brisbane intact.