Daily Mail, Friday, September 6, 201987
They bowled too short at me again, says Australia’s run machine
By LAWRENCE BOOTH
at Old TraffordSTEVE SMITH accused England of
playing into his hands after he
continued to punish their
bowling with a magnificent 211 in
Manchester.
Smith, who missed the
Headingley Test because he was
recovering from concussion, has
now scored 589 runs in four
innings in this series at an
average of 147. But he said his life
was made easier by England’s
short-pitched tactics on the
second day of the fourth Test.
‘I’ve faced a lot of short-pitchedbowling in my life, and haven’t
had too many issues with it,’
he said.
‘Them bowling up there means
they can’t hit me on the pad or
nick me off, and it softened the
ball up as well, so it played into
our hands and allowed us to get
some runs.
‘I said before the game that if
they’re bowling at my head,
then they’re not bowling at mystumps. That perhaps played
into our favour a bit.’
The mood of the day pivoted
moments after Smith had edged
Jack Leach to Ben Stokes at slip
on 118, only for replays to reveal
a no-ball.
‘I thought I was out, so I was a
bit angry with the shot I played,’
he said. ‘When I saw the foot
over the line, and Kumar
Dharmasena called me back, it
was like, “How good is this? I get
to stay out and keep batting”.’
‘You always need some luckwhen you score big runs. It fell
my way. I lost a bit of
concentration, I reckon, for 20
minutes when Leach was
bowling.
‘I tried to hit one into next week
and it landed safely. Then I got a
nick from one that spun and
bounced a bit. I didn’t need to
play it. I was in a bit of a hurry
for 20 minutes but after I got
caught off the no-ball, I
switched myself back on.’
England have grown sick of the
sight of Smith over the last twoAshes, but wicketkeeper Jonny
Bairstow — who has had a better
view than most — praised his
opponent.
‘Fair play to the way he played,’
he said. ‘He’s got the bit
between his teeth and he’s in
great form. But I’m not sure
we’re the only team around the
world who have tried a few
different plans. He played and
missed at some balls today we’d
not seen him play and miss at
previously. On another day, we
get him out slightly earlier.’SCOREBOARD
FOURTH TEST MATCH
ENGLAND v AUSTRALIA
(Day 3 of 5 starts today, 11am)
EMIRATES OLD TRAFFORD: England, with nine
first-innings wickets in hand, trail by 474 runs.
AUSTRALIA — First Innings (Overnight: 170-3)
Runs Balls 4s 6s
S Smith c Denly b Root ............ 211 319 24 2
T Head lbw b Broad .................... 19 22 3 0
M Wade c Root b Leach ............. 16 45 2 0
*†T Paine c Bairstow b Overton. 58 127 8 0
P Cummins c Stokes b Leach ..... 4 9 1 0
M Starc not out ........................... 54 58 7 2
N Lyon not out ........................... 26 26 4 0
Extras (b8, lb14, w3, nb4) ....... 29
Total (8 wkts dec 126 overs). 497
Fall: 1, 28, 144, 183, 224, 369, 387, 438.
Bowling: Broad 25-2-97-3, Archer 27-3-97-0, Stokes
10.5-0-66-0, Leach 26.1-3-83-2, Overton 28-3-85-2,
Denly 3-1-8-0, Root 6-0-39-1.
ENGLAND — First Innings
Runs Balls 4s 6s
R Burns not out .......................... 15 25 2 0
J Denly c Wade b Cummins ......... 4 24 0 0
C Overton not out ........................ 3 12 0 0
Extras (nb1) ............................... 1
Total (1 wkt 10 overs) .............. 23
Fall: 10.
Bowling: Starc 2-2-0-0, Hazlewood 4-1-3-0,
Cummins 3-0-10-1, Lyon 1-0-10-0.LEACH PUTS HIS FOOT
IN IT AS SMITH ESCAPES
ENGLAND thought they’d
finally seen the back of Steve
Smith when, on 118, he edged
a Jack Leach delivery and
was caught at first slip by Ben
Stokes (left). But as he left
the field replays showed the
spinner had inexplicably
overstepped the line (right),
so the delivery was called a
no-ball and Smith returned
to plunder another 93 runs.Ruthless:
Smith adds
to his tally
as England
toil again
ACTION IMAGESBUMBLE LEFT OUT IN COLD
I DID a bit of a crawl around
Manchester on Wednesday in the
rain that finished up, of course, with
a curry. I walked in giving it the big
un, with loads of cricket supporters
saying ‘Bumble’s here’. So imagine
the blow to my pride when they
turned us away. There was no room!
Luckily we got in at Sangam which
was very nice....
ALL HAIL ROBBIE’S OLD MAN
WE’VE had them all visit our
commentary box — Mick Jagger,
Stephen Fry, Ed Sheeran — but
yesterday topped the lot. None
other than Pete Conway, Robbie
Williams’ dad, came up and saw us.
He bowled left-arm spin in the
North Staffordshire league against
Garry Sobers and he belts out a
mean Sweet Caroline with his boy.PICTURE PERFECT AUSSIES
WALKING home I went past the
Circus Tavern just as landlord Barry
was taking the air. I was
professional and didn’t go in — so
he brought everybody outside for a
photo, including my mate Laverty
and four Australians in team
tracksuits. Two of them were called
Pete and Matt — not Siddle and
Wade, surely?SMITH REIGNITES PAINE’S BAT
TIM PAINE will have benefited from
batting with Steve Smith. The Aussie
captain (left) has looked a good batsman
throughout this series but before
yesterday he hadn’t scored any runs. The
pair of them have put Australia in a very
good position because this Old Trafford
pitch is going to spin. And by the way. Has
anyone out there got any idea how to
get Smith out? I’m asking for a friend...fwtt