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Australia vs. England, Day Three of the Third Test at the WACA

STEVE Smith has put up his most undeniable Bradman-esque record yet, leaving Aussie test legends to eat his dust.

Alex BlairAlex Blair
@alexblair_1
11 min read
December 16, 2017 - 9:10PM
Nothing left to say about the man.
Nothing left to say about the man.

Live: Aus vs. England Third Test

Australia has established a first innings lead of 146 runs with six wickets in hand heading into day four of the Third Ashes Test at the Waca.

STEVE Smith. Machine. Freak. Best since Bradman. Unstoppable.

All of those terms still fall short of describing the mammoth innings from the Australian captain that has put Australia within reach of returning the urn in Perth.

Smith and Mitch Marsh combined in a 301-run partnership that broke the backs of the lifeless England attack.

It may come to be remembered as the day England’s resistance crumbled when this Ashes series is looked back on.

Smith looked almost completely comfortable against the England attack as he plundered his biggest ever score in test cricket.

The 28-year-old will resume unbeaten on 229 runs alongside Marsh, who also celebrated his highest score in test cricket and his first test century.

Marsh will resume on day four unbeaten on 181, which he blasted off just 234 balls — to completely demoralise England bowlers.

The hosts hold a 146-run lead at stumps having marched to 4/549.

Smith is in the box seat to push for an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series although, if predicted showers arrive on Sunday and Monday, they could provide more resistance than the tourists’ trundlers.

England had boasted the upper hand at 4-368 in their first innings but have since spectacularly imploded. Their trip hit a new low on Saturday, when 346 runs were scored and a single wicket fell.

Joe Root clutched a slips catch to dismiss Shaun Marsh shortly before the second new ball was due. He jubilantly threw the Kookaburra into the air, desperate for deflated teammates to defend a first-innings total of 403.

Instead they were embarrassed across the rest of the day as test superstars like James Anderson and Stuart Broad were made to look out of their depth — and Root’s captaincy was made to look impotent and defeated.

The tourists need a miracle to salvage something from this series.

Australia 4/549 after 152 overs. Smith 229, M. Marsh 181

England 403

8.30pm

Smith’s insane GOAT feat

Steve Smith has gone past his previous best test innings score and set a freakish new record.

Playing in his 108th test innings, Smith set a new benchmark since the beginning of test cricket for total runs scored across the same duration of his career to date.

While, Sir Donald Bradman only played in 52 tests, Smith is the new record-holder as the most prolific batsman in cricket across the first 108 innings of a test career.

Smith reached the stunning record moments before he climbed past his previous highest score of 215 in 2015.

Sir Garfield Sobers previously held the record, but Smith jumped him with 5557 runs across 108 innings.

That feat is just one of a series of stunning records Smith has achieved in his innings at the Waca. Read on below to see the others.

7.35pm

Marsh brings up 150

Mitchell Marsh raced to his 150 milestone from just 188 balls in an innings that has completely drained the lifeless innings attack.

Ashes commentator Mark Nicholas said Marsh’s innings has made the panel of selector’s decision to re-call him one of the “greatest ever masterstrokes” by selectors in Australian cricket.

7.10pm

Smith scores double century

Steve Smith has scored his second double-century as he also brought up his highest ever test score in Australia.

Smith brought up his incredible double hundred as he and Mitchell Marsh continued to score at will against a lifeless England attack on the flat Waca deck.

Smith is now chasing down his highest ever score at test level – his knock of 215 against England at Lord’s in 2015.

It also gave him his second Ashes double hundred. He is just the fourth player to score multiple double hundreds in Ashes tests.

Smith and Mitchell Marsh earlier brought up their 200-run partnership.

6.50pm

England star bowling with broken rib

England fast-bowler Craig Overton has been playing with a cracked rib, England team officials have confirmed.

Overton had bowled 23 overs and was in the middle of a spell of bowling against Mitchell Marsh and Steve Smith when the news was confirmed.

England has not confirmed how he suffered the injury, however it was reportedly inflicted when Aussie quick Pat Cummins bowled a vicious shortball straight into his ribs during the Second Test in Adelaide.

He also grimaced after hitting the deck at the Waca on day two when he reached out to try and grab a caught-and-bowled.

6.15pm

Marsh’s finest hour

It’s for real this time.
It’s for real this time.

Mitch Marsh let out a huge scream as he looked up to the sky and soaked in the moment he scored his first test century.

Marsh scored his first test hundred off just 130-balls.

Marsh earlier reached his highest score in test cricket moments after Australia reached 400 and then went passed England’s first innings score of 403.

In his finest hour in the test arena, Marsh went past his previous best red-ball knock of 87, which he scored against Pakistan in 2014.

Marsh was scoring at almost five runs-per-over as he set a new Test high score with England’s bowlers looking down and out in the middle of a long afternoon in the Perth heat.

Marsh was chosen for the match ahead of Victorian Peter Handscomb and the decision was questioned after the WA skipper failed to fire with the ball in England’s first innings.

But his greatest ever score in test cricket has already validated the Australian selection panel’s decision to give him yet another chance.

5.20pm

Complete humiliation over Anderson no-ball review

England bowler James Anderson was left with egg all over his face after he convinced captain Joe Root to review an LBW appeal against Steve Smith.

The problem is Anderson overstepped and bowled a no-ball.

Third umpire Aleem Dar ruled there was no part of Anderson’s front boot behind the crease and did not continue the review.

Ball tracking reportedly showed the ball was missing the stumps and that the on-field decision of not-out would have remained.

4.50pm

Marsh reaches 50

Mitchell Marsh scored just his third test fifty as he also brought up a 100-run partnership with Steve Smith mid-way through the second session of play.

Marsh had scored just two fifties in his first 21 tests, but he got there in his 22nd test with style as Australia also closed to within fifty runs of England’s first-innings total.

4.30pm

Smith’s extraordinary run as he hits 150

Steve Smith trumped Test legend Sachin Tendulkar as he became the third-quickest batsman in Test cricket to score 22-Test hundreds.

Smith scored his 22nd Test century in just 108 innings, quicker than Tendulkar’s 114 innings.

Only Sir Donald Bradman (58) and Sunil Gavaskar (101) have scored 22 Test hundreds in fewer innings than the Aussie skipper.

Smith then went on to bring up his 150 just a few overs after the lunch break.

His innings in Perth also took him beyond the 1000-run mark for this calendar year — his fourth straight year where he has scored more than 1000 runs.

His incredible four-years opf dominance has only been achieved once previously in the history of Test cricket.

Former Aussie opener Matthew Hayden went five-straight years from 2001-05 scoring at least 1000 runs every year, according to cricinfo.

His incredible streak is just one of many records the Australian skipper has set in his Perth innings.

He also broke the previous record for the highest Ashes score at the venue.

When he earlier scored his hundred, Smith also became the second-quickest Australian to score 22 Test hundreds.

3.30pm

KP lashes England bowlers

Former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen has seen enough of the English bowling attack after some lacklustre efforts on day three.

As Steve Smith continues to dazzle and amaze the crowd, Mitch Marsh looked a nervous wreck as he took guard behind the crease.

After spooning one of his first balls back over the bowlers head, the bowling tactic seemed to be working to help him regain form as the offering was a plethora of half volleys.

Pietersen didn’t hold back in his assessment of the attack.

3.10pm

English review goes to waste

A Joe Root review reeked of desperation as the Englishmen search for anyway to remove Steve Smith from the batting attack.

As Smith walked across the crease in his usual fashion, James Anderson’s delivery went between his legs flicking his back leg on its way through.

With the ball rolling away to the rope for four, the tourists got together and ultimately decided the appeal was worth a second look.

Of course the DRS revealed exactly what the umpire had signalled, Smith was not out and the Australian skipper remains at the crease to haunt the English.

2:55pm

Mitch Marsh’s shaky start

Mitchell Marsh has worked his way into double figures, but it hasn’t been easy. The recalled all-rounder ballooned a front foot defensive shot which landed just shy of mid-on.

Despite his early jitters, he made up for it with a perfect off-drive to the fence for four off Jimmy Anderson.

2:23pm

Shaun Marsh falls to Ali

Moeen Ali may have failed with the bat, but his effort with the ball paid off almost instantly on day three.

Shaun Marsh was looking solid in the morning session, timing balls to the boundary and working his way to 28. Ali had to cop being sent to the fence twice in his first over but got revenge with a spinning ball catching Marsh’s outside edge and falling into the hands of Joe Root in the slips.

1:48pm

Smith brings up inevitable ton

In a surprise to absolutely nobody, Steve Smith has brought up his century early on day three.

The Aussie skipper immediately picked up where he left off yesterday evening, timing shots to perfection and working the field to race to his 22nd Test ton.

“He’s not done yet. He wants this to be a big one,” Mark Taylor said from the commentary box.

Smith sits behind Sir Donald Bradman as Australia’s second-quickest batsman to 22 centuries (59 Tests), beating Matthew Hayden (73) in third and Greg Chappell (79) in fourth.

The great Bradman, regarded as the greatest sportsman Australia has produced, took just 39 Tests to reach the milestone.

Smith passed his 1000th run of the calendar year soon after, a feat he has repeated four years running.

“The only way he’s getting out today is by getting bored,” Michael Clarke said.

12:30pm

Chappell: ‘You can’t do that’

Usman Khawaja’s half-century on day two divided former stars as he played a relatively lax innings to reach 50.

The Aussie No. 3 was almost out to Craig Overton in his first over at the crease, mistiming a shot and sending a leading edge just out of the England seamer’s grasp.

“I thought it was a really good 50,” Michael Slater said.

But Kevin Pietersen disagreed.

“He just says in first or second gear. Batsmen usually go through the gears (throughout their innings). He just stays there and you never see him in fifth gear. That really frustrates me.”

Former Aussie skipper Ian Chappell said Australia has been going about it the wrong way in putting the 30-year-old in at first drop.

“My main (problem) with Khawaja is that you cannot have your number three batting there in Australia and nowhere else in the world. You can’t do that,” he said.

Chappell was referring to Australia’s decision to drop Khawaja as they toured the subcontinent earlier in the year and instead elevated Steve Smith to the No. 3 position.

12:15pm

Former stars slam Ali brain fade

Ali didn’t last long on day two.
Ali didn’t last long on day two.

Former England captain Michael Vaughan had a strong word for England all-rounder Moeen Ali, who fell for a second ball duck on day two. Ali sent an easy catch through to Smith off the bowling of Pat Cummins as England’s lower order collapsed.

“Moeen’s was a weak dismissal,” he told BT Sport.

“It really disappointed me, it was soft.”

Former Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting agreed.

“I agree with Michael, Moeen was really lazy,” he said. “He’s been sitting there watching how much it’s been bouncing and then he just stands there and prods at one.”

But the critics didn’t stop there. Ex-England spinner Graeme Swann, who famously retired mid-season in 2013 when England was on its way to another Ashes whitewash, took aim at Ali’s soft dismissal.

“Moeen Ali’s dismissal was meek,” he told Test Match special. He’s getting out more meekly each innings. He had watched the entire innings, batted in the net for three days — he knows it’s going to be bouncy. He looked half asleep.”

12pm

‘Batting with a cigar in his mouth’

Nothing much is getting in the way of this bloke.
Nothing much is getting in the way of this bloke.

Steve Smith’s quickfire 92 on day two sent a shiver up the Poms as he belted premier quicks Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad around the WACA with ease.

The pair are currently wicketless with the first three wickets going to understudy seamers Chirs Woakes and Craig Overton.

Shane Warne served Broad for sending Smith “throw-downs” as the 28-year-old plundered through his 122-ball innings.

Former England skipper Michael Vaughan said Smith had England on the ropes and out of ideas going into day three.

“Smith is 92 not out and he’s played with a cigar in his mouth,” he said via the BBC. “He’s hardly broken sweat, he’s batted wonderfully well.

“England have tried things against him but on a pitch like this, good players know there’s runs in it for them.

“England’s worry is that Steve Smith could go big - and I mean really big.

“Then, history tells you that if a team is down in the series and goes into the third innings of a Test with parity, negativity can creep in.”

11am

Bairstow explains headbutt celebration

A cheeky headbutt from Bairstow.
A cheeky headbutt from Bairstow.

England’s Jonny Bairstow played down his “lighthearted” celebration on Friday after he welcomed his Ashes century by mimicking a headbutt — a reference to a controversy which threatened to overshadow his series.

Bairstow took off his helmet and knocked it against his head several times after he reached three figures in Perth to bolster England’s first innings of 403.

The 28-year-old, who scored 119, found himself in the firing line earlier in the series after it came to light that he had greeted Australia’s Cameron Bancroft by bumping heads in a Perth bar.

“It was a bit of lighthearted fun with everything that has gone on and that is exactly how it should be taken,” he said, referring to Friday’s celebration.

Bairstow was left beaming by his first Ashes century, which came at a vital time as England fight to stay in the series after losing the first two Tests.

“The hundred in many ways was my favourite one, it meant a huge amount,” he said.

“I have played in a few Ashes series. Now to score an Ashes hundred is something you dream about as a kid.

“You want to say to your kids that you made an Ashes hundred at the WACA away from home.

“It has eluded me until now and it was a whole heap of emotions that came running through.” England collapsed to lose their last six wickets for 35 runs before lunch. Australia were 203 for three at the close on day two.

— AFP

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