Steve Smith unstoppable against hapless England Ashes attack
JOE Root and his team must feel frustration and hopelessness with Steve Smith, as his extraordinary run-scoring feats continue.
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IMAGINE the frustration and feeling of hopelessness the England cricket team must have felt before they devised the brutal Bodyline assault to curb Don Bradman’s mastery over their bowlers.
That’s the point Joe Root and his team have reached with Steve Smith, as his extraordinary run-scoring feats continue.
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At the time when captain Douglas Jardine unleashed Bodyline, Bradman was averaging 103 in 15 innings against England. Smith is currently averaging 142 against the hapless England attack this series.
I’ll bet Root wishes he had the pace bowlers to mount a modern-day version of a Bodyline attack on Smith.
One of Root’s many problems in dealing with Smith has been his propensity for coming up with complicated plans.
Instead of devising and sticking to simple, more traditional plans to dismiss Smith — like hit the top of off-stump with the occasional bouncer — Root has invited trouble by opting for too many schemes. Consequently the bowlers’ line and length has lacked consistency and eventually they’ve submitted to Smith’s supremacy.
It’s rare to witness an air of inevitability about an innings but such was Smith’s mastery at the WACA — from the beginning — that it was no surprise when he reached his double century.
It’s generally statistically unfair on modern batsmen to compare them with Bradman but Smith’s feats don’t melt in that glaring spotlight.
Smith is second to Bradman as a Test captain, in both average and the number of innings it takes him to score a century. The fact that he’s less than thirty behind Bradman’s average is a feather in his cap but remarkably he only just trails the relentless batting master in average number of innings per century — 3.64 compared with 2.71.
To put that into context, two of the batting giants from the previous generation, Brian Lara and Ricky Ponting, took on average 6.07 and 7.37 innings respectively to compile a century as a captain.
In reading about Bradman’s incredible deeds, he’s regularly described as an ‘unorthodox’ batsman. This probably relates to his short stature and liking for horizontal bat shots rather than any quirkiness in style.
Smith on the other hand has a method that’s as queer as a three dollar bill. After a series of fidgets that equate to a man suffering from flea bites, Smith then has an exaggerated movement back and across to the off-side before the ball is delivered. However at the moment that matters, Smith is as orthodox as needs be; after all technique is simply stopping the good deliveries and scoring off the rest. Smith has attained a credit in technique.
The confidence Smith has gained from his amazing sequence of centuries shows in his captaincy. He now has an aura about him as nothing builds the image of a miracle worker among teammates quicker, than regular match winning knocks.
Of the batsmen I played against Garry Sobers was one who could make bowling seem like an exercise in futility. Viv Richards also regularly plundered the bowling but he occasionally took risks and you felt there was a chance he’d make an error of judgment.
In 1970 at Kingsmead, Barry Richards thrilled his home crowd with a scintillating knock of 140. That wasn’t the end of our troubles, however, as Graeme Pollock set out to show the crowd there was another guy who could play and he scored 274. There was an air of inevitability about that innings from the moment he caressed three fours from the first over he faced and then nonchalantly lent on his bat at the non-striker’s end.
I’ve witnessed innings by Sachin Tendulkar and Lara where they appeared totally in charge and their demise was a matter purely of their choosing.
V.V.S. Laxman’s 2000-01 masterpiece at Eden Gardens in Kolkata was full of memorable shots but the pitch was offering assistance to a leg-spinning genius in Shane Warne and there was a niggling doubt that this innings wouldn’t scale the heights. It finally ended at 281 by which time Laxman had reached the pinnacle.
In 2014-15, Virat Kohli defied logic and the Australian bowlers on a turning fourth innings pitch at Adelaide Oval, to amass an amazing 141 off just 175 balls. Smith made a masterful first innings century in that same match and a rivalry was conceived. Including those innings, Smith has since averaged 77 and Kohli 67, as the pair dominate Test cricket.
They’ve played exactly the same number of Test innings (51) as captain and the responsibility has enhanced their excellence; Smith has 14 centuries and Kohli 13.
One of my great regrets is I never saw Bradman bat. However the game evolves and, along with the fans, I glimpse what Bradman’s mastery must have been like when I watch Smith have his way with the bowling.