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‘Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable’ is the quote that comes to mind when looking at Steven Smith as a batsman.
With his career average of 58.55 alluding to a batting master but his greater truth found in the aspects of batsmanship that cannot be precisely defined, or measured.
A clear glimpse of this seen in the second innings during this Test. After respected Roar cricketing analyst, Ronan O’Connell justifiably penned the crucial need for the team to fight this Test out with it having a significant effect on the momentum for the rest of a challenging Test summer, Smith’s place in this was pivotal.
He was on the way to commandeering this while sharing in a 92-run partnership with Usman Khawaja where the diminished South African bowling attack was showing signs of tiring. Standing out was Smith shelving much of his attacking flair and replacing it with the type of contriteness that was necessary for the fight.
In witnessing the surety of the partnership thoughts of a defining draw or outside hopes of a miraculous win were raising. That hope was dashed when Smith decided to throw it all away with a wafty drive to a ball he could have left.
While trudging off the immediate thought was he had to see off Kagiso Rabada, with the young firebrand posing the greatest threat with only 11 overs left in the days play. In failing in doing this, his batting petulance contributed to the ensuing Adam Voges dismissal on a pitch difficult to acclimatise for new batsmen coming in.
Sadly, an inevitability reared.
Revolving around question marks over Smith’s temperament when batting under any type of duress. With it apparent, he lacks the spatial awareness of genuinely great batsmen who sum up the circumstances of a game and routinely adapt to its needs.
In the process, portraying Smith as a fantastic front running batsman in conditions that suit but lacking performances garnering real respect in the face of adversary.
The type of efforts defining greatness more profoundly than figures ever do. Think of Matthew Hayden in India in 2001, Hashim Amla in England in 2012, Alastair Cook in India in 2012, or Younis Khan’s meaningful double century in England this year.
Bedrock performances, defining real calibre with the marriage of skill and batting pragmatism to prevail in trying circumstances.
Fans of Smith will instantly scoff at this by pointing to his extraordinary batting average, one with a very respectable away record. But, as you dig deeper into the figures it only serves to justify the previous opinion.
The standout being that of his 15 Test centuries, 14 came in the first innings of matches and only one in the second. More damning is his average of 88.08 when batting first in a Test drops dramatically to only 33.23 when batting fourth. In games where Australia win, he averages 81.03 with ten centuries as opposed to an average of 30.84 with only one ton in losing efforts.
Of his best performances, few standout. His remarkable home series against India in 2014-15 where he averaged an outrageous 128.18 with four centuries in four Tests does from a statistical sense.
But ask yourself, can you remember any of the innings?
The answer defines Smith, with him statistically excellent, but rarely viewed as memorable in the sense that genuinely great batsman are.
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