The image of Smith prone on the Lord's turf
will define this Test (AFP/Getty)The blow, it won’t have been lost on anyone on impact, looked to land in exactly the same place that had
fatally accounted for his team-mate Phil Hughes almost five years ago. Whilst commentary froze as if any
voice onto the moment might add complicity, the country outside were presented an aerial view of him
splayed, arms wide open, face up, motionless.
This was the man who was being wished out by any means necessary. This was the man who had been
roundly booed. This was the man who has more time than anyone else in living memory to react to a cricket
ball, eventually being escorted off the field.
In Archer’s next spell of serious note, another visceral barrage of terrifying proportions that fell just shy of
helping England to a improbable victory, he hit Smith’s ultimately brave concussion substitute, Marnus
Labuschagne, flush on the helmet second ball.
Lords cowered, suddenly still. It was poignant that in a week where we had cause to reflect that cricket isn’t
in fact life and death, to also remember that, sometimes, underneath all the noise, it is.