‘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.
Jom
Guest
Ooooooof :cricket:
Johnny
Guest
Hahahaha
David
Guest
This has aged well
Stevo
Guest
Time for an article update mate ? Looks a bit dated now
steve
Guest
how bout the first double century at lords by an Australian since Don Bradman. Im sure you remember his hundred in the first test of the last South African tour when him and Shaun Marsh rescued Australia from losing the first test of a series they went on to win against an in form Steyn led SA attack, he has had stand out performances. I would rate that even hundred he scored in South Africa as his best innings and ive seen most of them from him.
steve
Guest
Steve Waugh had a remarkable batting line up surrounding him for most of his career though, and one of the greatest bowling attacks ever to give them big leads and low targets.
John Erichsen
Roar Guru
That sums up the Aussie side at present. Good front runners when totally on top or against weak opposition, but when a little pressure is applied, we don't have the substance needed to stay in the contest for long enough.
John Erichsen
Roar Guru
Apart from South Africa, with very Aussie-like pitches, Warner is potentially dangerous because of his attacking style, but rarely a serious threat. When touring, I expect opposition are far less concerned about him taking the game away from them.
Tim Holt
Roar Guru
I think most batsmen defined as 'great' have that bedrock innings or series, Smith lacks this agree completely that the 1st innings here was his platform if he had someone stick with him with his batting and associated temperament of the highest calibre. people will laugh, but i would nearly go so far to define it as Smith's greatest ever innings
doogs
Guest
I agree Baz. He was miles ahead of anybody in the team on the day
doogs
Guest
Thank you for replying Tim. Nice of you to say that about Smith's batting. It was one of his best. Whether you relate to his type of batting has nothing to do with his effectiveness. There have been many stand-out innings from batsmen. But do you have to have one to justify your calibre? Currently, I would be happy just to take a contribution, Tim. Although if he had somebody to hang around with him , yesterday could have been the stand-out innings. I am sure he will have one at some point.
doogs
Guest
Not only that Alex. Waugh was coming in later than Smith. He exposed the tail which could be read two ways. One was so the tail would improve as batsmen and have more pride in their own batting. The other was it was better for his average. He would have had a few not outs in that 32 average as well. This article came out before Smith's innings yesterday. Seems like he guts it out quite well scoring half the runs and remaining not out
doogs
Guest
I don't agree at all with your assessment. But that is what forums are for. You are making it sound like he is not in the same league as other batsman. You use statistics and yet those players you are comparing to, have similar averages. To be fair, you seem a bit sheepish now about using the stats. I would feel at least Smith, Warner and Starc can feel decent about their current contributions. Even though I find Lyon incredibly dull as a bowler his prior 7 series to this one had quite reasonable returns. This series he is quite lame
Tim Holt
Roar Guru
he was exceptional today, I would go so far to say it is the best I have seen him bat As for I, and this article, i struggle to relate to his type of batting and the fact he hasnt got a stand out performance to justify his calibre
Tim Holt
Roar Guru
I would go so far to say that his effort today was the best i have ever seen Smith bat
doogs
Guest
I understand this article was put out before today. Smith stood head and shoulders above the rest of the team under tremendous adversity. I suppose you will have your reasons for that. On one hand we have articles about Smith being underminded by the current commentary team and on the other hand he is underminded here. So what do you want from him?
baz
Guest
Today he proved he is as good as his average made it look easy when rest struggled. Hope he gets a big hundred in the second innings we will need 500 plus to make a game of it.
Amrit
Roar Guru
I really do not buy it in any way, Smith needs time to establish himself like the other Smith in the previous Proteas Test camp. Just four Test defeats in a row as a captain and all the barrage is on him, that's absurd
Tim Holt
Roar Guru
Do not get me wrong, Smith is a good player, just not great. i think he is very one dimensional in technique and temperament meaning he will always be suspect against real quality or in conditions that do not suit. The main part of this is when there is a bit of pressure on him The Captaincy is interesting, I think it is very similar to his batting in being predominantly one dimensional. The pressure comes when the team struggles for I do not think Smith deals well with pressure
Spongebob
Guest
An interesting one. Smith played what, 20, 30 games before getting his first century? Horrible average. One of those 'but one day he'll come good!' selections. I definitely thought, like Mitch Marsh at the moment, we're going to lose a bunch of games and maybe some day he'll win 1 or 2 in return. He ended up coming good during a lot of home series, having a blistering ~2 year period. Could have been out half a dozen times every time but wasn't. Now that his "luck has worn off", he's struggled of late. No longer will jumping while flailing wildly mean an inside nick for 4 runs, he's out. The captaincy maybe influencing, who knows. However he certainly sees far from a top technique and now that it's not 'just working' for him, he's getting out a lot when he really shouldn't. I don't think he should be dropped at all, however give it a summer and he could well have a target on his back.