Steve Smith — a little bit more of everything
Smith had just returned from the three to fine leg with which he had reached his 27th Test century, and first in Australia for three years.
As with every shot in his locker, his celebrations are unique. Here the helmet was torn off, his hair stood on end, his mouth formed a mix of beam and grimace, and his upward whoosh of the bat almost whirled him off his feet. Arms aloft, he had eyes momentarily only for the dressing room balcony: this hundred was for them all.
About his struggle for runs this summer, Smith has been disarmingly frank in public; imagine how much more he has shared in-house. His comrades, not least his coach, have gone on backing him; with each failure, however, the pressure on them has grown.
When Smith reached 80 with a flick to leg a few overs after lunch, it was Australia’s highest Test score against India since Smith’s century in the first innings at Dharamsala in March 2017 — for a country with our cricket heritage, a remarkable stretch of underachievement.
With this eighth hundred in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, however, Smith guaranteed a first innings in excess of 300 — a competitive minimum on this slow pitch, showing some hints of uneven bounce. Aside from a rumour of a whiff of a glimmer of a quarter chance on Thursday night, a flick in the air past leg gully, his innings was flawless. A shame only, perhaps, that Virat Kohli was not around to regard it as an incentive.
For his comrades, meanwhile, batting proved rather a battle. Especially before lunch, the match had a muted air: few runs, few chances, few spectators, two rain breaks, a tight contest, Ajinkya Rahane’s ring field offering India’s bowlers a higher standard of security than Capitol Police.
The broadcasters turned up the pitch mics with their usual lip-smacking relish, only to overhear next to nothing, just cricketers immersed in the contest, too busy for our old friend “banter”.
Ravi Jadeja, likewise a nuisance for the home viewer because his overs take less time than a kettle to boil, troubled the Australians with extra bounce, precision of line and variations of pace.
Still battling to rediscover his last season’s groove, Marnus Labuschagne just seemed to have found some fluency when he lent back to force the left-armer through the off side, and Rahane set an exemplary standard at slip.
Hanuma Vihari wore four sweep shots from Wade on different parts of the body, before the batsman in partial frustration came down the wicket and spooned to mid-on.
Taking the new ball as soon as it was due, Bumrah bowled the spell of the day either side of lunch, wrist behind the ball, pace keen, seam proud: 7-3-12-2 hardly did it justice.
The fascination with Bumrah is his approach: that frisky jig of a run, arms stiff like an officious maitre’d. But you suspect he could bowl as quickly from an approach as short as Jadeja’s, such is his explosion of energy as he hits the crease. With his right arm beyond the perpendicular, he presents conundrums like nobody in cricket, and few in history, offering the batsmen no cues and permitting them few liberties.
The first delivery Bumrah bowled with the new Kookaburra came back like an in-ducker, jagged away like a leg-break, and beat the well-established Smith by six inches. Smith gave a nod and, in that way he does, performed an instant re-enactment, with an appreciative flex of his wrist.
Bumrah’s searching examination of Cameron Green concluded with his blowing the young man’s front pad off, of Tim Paine with his detonating the stumps. All with that air of a frolic, the smiling return to his mark. A remarkable bowler and package.
Milestone taken care of, however, Smith did as Paul Keating, and threw the switch to vaudeville: a late cut, an upper cut, a ramp, two slog sweeps and a top spin forehand into the ad court. Given Australia’s batting this season, it wasn’t a bad policy. Mitchell Starc contributed a few choice blows, but otherwise Smith was on his own: to the 132 added by Australia’s last eight wickets, their main man contributed 85.
Eventually, he was punished for pushing too hard, the mercurial Jadeja throwing the stumps down from backward square leg as Smith scrambled to regain the strike against Bumrah. Later he stood out at slip to Nathan Lyon by wearing two caps topped by two pairs of sunglasses: with Smith you get a little more of everything.
As Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma started securely, the Australians toiled hard for their wickets. Two tall men showed their suppleness: Josh Hazlewood stooped to take return catch and Green dived left to grab a two-hander at gully. A shorter man was obviously not so limber, David Warner escorting a sweep shot for four that he would normally have skidded to save. Will he be fit for Brisbane? Will we even be going? The question of Steve Smith’s stature has been addressed — at the close his colleagues stood to one side to let him leave the field first. Everything else about this series remains in play.
Steve Smith played many delectable and idiosyncratic strokes at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Friday. None had greater authority than a shot that brought no runs.