Sydney: Steve Smith’s importance to Australia in the Ashes series has not just been in the torrent of runs he has scored, but also in timing of his big innings, according to his teammate Pat Cummins.
The Australia captain once again proved immovable at the crease as he passed 6,000 Test runs in his 111th innings on the second day of the fifth and final Ashes Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Friday.
His unbeaten 44 helped Australia to 193 for two at stumps on Day II, 153 runs behind England’s first-innings total, and brought his own tally over the five Tests to 648 runs at a provisional average of 162.
An unbeaten century in Brisbane and 239 in Perth helped ensure the return of the Ashes as Australia took an unassailable 3-0 lead in the series, while his 102 not out in the fourth Test stymied England’s hopes of victory in Melbourne.
“We’re stoked he’s in our team, so we don’t have to bowl to him. He just goes out there and looks from ball one that he’s been batting for three hours already,” Cummins said.
“No obvious weakness, no obvious time that it takes him to build his innings. From ball one he knows his game really well.
“Those big innings he has played as well, they have been really important. In Brisbane and Perth, they were match-winning and in Melbourne, it was match-saving.
“It’s just incredible and I think he’s been the difference between the two sides.”
Smith’s extraordinary form has solidified his position as the world’s top-ranked Test batsman and only Donald Bradman reached the 6,000-run milestone in fewer innings, with West Indies great Garfield Sobers taking the same number.
As a teammate of Smith at New South Wales, Cummins rarely bowls against him in match conditions, but his experiences at nets have given the pacer enough of an inkling as to how difficult it is. “He's very different to pretty much every other batsman,” Cummins said.
“He moves so much that it’s harder to find your target. What appears to be a normal fourth stump ball to anyone else, he can hit it to the leg side as though it’s a leg-stump ball and then the next ball, he might not move so far and yet hit a full-blooded cover drive.
“I think he’s just a really hard batsman against whom you can get some rhythm as a bowler. I think the best batsmen in the world are the most proactive as they find a way to get off strike, find a way not to let you settle in as a bowler.
“Steve’s a seriously smart batsman, he knows what he’s doing and he knows how to have one over the bowler.”
England, though, remain hopeful of getting rid of Smith early and getting that first-innings lead. “There were periods where we had a couple of inside edges that didn’t quite get to short leg or to slip, but that happens,” debutant Mason Crane said.
“That’s the game and you keep plugging away and hopefully, they go our way tomorrow.”
Crane agreed that Smith was obviously the key wicket for England. “He”s playing it very well, he’s seeing it very well, but he’s only human… So, we’ll keep plugging away and hopefully get him out and get the first-innings lead,” Crane said.
Reuters
England
1st Innings (Overnight 233/5)
D. Malan c Smith b Starc 62
M. Ali c Paine b Cummins 30
T. Curran c Bancroft b Cummins 39
S. Broad c Smith b Lyon 31
M. Crane run out 4
J. Anderson not out 0
Extras (lb-2, w-2) 4
Total (all out; 112.3 overs) 346
Fall of wickets 6/251, 7/294, 8/335, 9/346
Bowling: Starc 21-6-80-2, Hazlewood 23-4-65-2, Cummins 24.3-5-80-4, Lyon 37-5-86-1, M. Marsh 7-0-33-0
Australia
1st Innings
C. Bancroft b Broad 0
D. Warner c B’stow b Anderson 56
U. Khawaja batting 91
S. Smith batting 44
Extras (b-1, nb-1) 2
Total (2 wickets; 67 overs) 193
Fall of wickets 1/1, 2/86
Bowling: Anderson 14-4-25-1, Broad 10-2-28-1, Ali 17- 3-51-0, Curran 8-2-26-0, Crane 17-0-58-0, Root 1-0-4-0
