Do not mourn for the spirit of cricket... we matched fire with fire
DARKNESS had fallen all around here at the Adelaide Oval and the floodlights of the first Ashes day-night Test match were casting an eerie glow across the looming Moreton Bay fig trees at the Cathedral End of the ground when Jimmy Anderson moved into position at short mid-on.
The attempts to intimidate Australia captain Steve Smith had moved up a gear.
A kind of loathing has infested the days since England lost the first Test at the Gabba last week. It has centred on the fact that Joe Root’s side feel they were played by the Australians when news conveniently emerged on the penultimate day in Brisbane that Jonny Bairstow had greeted Aussie opener Cameron Bancroft with a playful headbutt weeks earlier.
The object of that loathing was Smith. As far as England were concerned, anyway. It was his face, grinning and giggling and gloating, that had stared out from the front of Australian newspapers in the wake of England’s defeat as he listened to Bancroft’s account of his strange encounter with Bairstow in a bar called The Avenue.
Former England captain Michael Atherton had said in the build-up to this Test that England should use those images of Smith to fire them up. As soon as the Aussie skipper came to the crease, it was obvious that they had.
Smith was imperious in Brisbane. In a contest that was even for most of the first three days, it was his first-innings unbeaten century that was the difference between the two teams. England could not get him out. A repeat of that was not an option if they were to have any chance of dragging themselves back into this series.
And so they threw everything at him. Anderson and Stuart Broad, in particular, channelled their fury and bowled at Smith with anger in their hearts. Rumours have circulated all week that the Australians’ sledging of Bairstow at the Gabba crossed a line and Anderson and Broad bowled every ball as if it were a quest for retribution.
Initially, Broad had targeted David Warner, another of England’s persecutors in Brisbane. When Warner played and missed early in his innings, Broad stared him down and laughed at him. Then he put his hands to his ears and looked at Warner expectantly. His message was clear: ‘I can’t hear you any more?’
Not long after that, Warner was out caught behind to a poor shot. His dismissal brought Smith to the crease and England went for him immediately, knowing that everything depended on it. The battle to get Smith, the battle to shred his invincibility, the battle to make him fallible, began with a greater intensity than we had witnessed in the first Test.
When Broad forced him into a streaky shot in the first over he bowled to him, the England paceman strolled down the wicket and muttered something to Smith. Whatever it was, Smith did not want to let it go. He advanced down the wicket as Broad turned away, shouting back at him.
Broad repeated the tactic the next ball. Once again, Smith looked rattled. At the end of the over, Broad gave the Australia captain another volley as he turned away and this time Smith walked up to the bowler’s end with him, each man chuntering at the other. When Broad turned to continue the argument, umpire Aleem Dar stepped in between them.
Those who object to this kind of behaviour in cricket suggested that the two captains ought to calm the situation. It is a bit late for that. England were just giving Smith a taste of his own medicine. They were criticised for being too passive at the Gabba. They were told their body language was not aggressive enough. Not this time. It was just before 8.30pm when Broad prepared to bowl to Peter Handscomb and Anderson took up position at short mid-on, right in front of Smith, who was at the non-striker’s end. Smith started talking animatedly to him, as though he objected to where he was standing, as if he felt it was an attempt to unsettle him. Anderson, quite correctly, refused to budge and the two men appeared to become engaged in an increasingly bitter argument.
At one point, Smith seemed to flick his bat at Anderson’s ankle. Anderson did not make anything of it. The situation between the two men became so tense that Dar was forced to intervene again. As the two men yapped at each other, the umpire walked over and made an obvious play of standing between them to separate them.
When Anderson rushed to field a short prod from Handscomb off the last ball of the over, he collided with Smith, who had set off in an abortive search for a run. The collision actually seemed to break the tension. Both men smiled. Anderson even waved his hand in apology.
Smith had scored more than 30 runs by then which was ominous for England because he has such a stellar record of converting any decent start into a century. But whether it was because the battles with Broad and Anderson had disturbed his concentration, or because he was rattled, or whether it was just time to show he was not perfect, he was out soon after.
He played outside a ball from Test debutant Craig Overton that brushed his pad, hit his inside edge, then ricocheted on to his leg stump, sending the flashing zing bails into the night air like fireflies. As Smith looked back in disgust, former Australia captain Ian Chappell said that the sound of the ball hitting the stumps is like a death rattle.
Overton became the first man to bowl Smith in a Test match in Australia since Trent Boult in November 2015. Smith had faced 2,131 balls since then. Maybe it was an indication of how Anderson and Broad had got under his skin.
Do not feel sorry for Smith and do not mourn for the spirit of cricket, whatever that might be. Australia took the gloves off with their antics at the Gabba. England are just matching fire with fire. Dismissing Smith for the first time in this series was one battle won on one day. But the war, as Warner likes to call it, is still raging.