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Steve Smith’s leadership provides Tim Paine relief

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Roar Rookie
2nd August, 2019
23

It’s 2:40 pm at a raucous Edgbaston and the Australian captain is fresh out in the middle.

Having won the toss and elected to bat, the Test is already on the line with his side five for 112.

Stuart Broad, tail up and bowling a nagging length, suddenly digs one in shorter. Tim Paine can’t resist. He swivels into a hasty pull shot, sending the ball straight down the throat of Rory Burns at deep square leg.

As he’s enthusiastically farewelled by the home crowd, Paine can immediately name 15 other shots that he should have played.

Luckily for the skipper, the man at the other end is Steve Smith, the bit firmly between his teeth, making a hefty repayment on the debt he feels to the team.

By the time he’s out just after 6:30 pm, Smith has amassed 144 and almost single-handedly led his team to a competitive first-innings total of 284.

This innings was Smith at his idiosyncratic best – simultaneously a bundle of nervous energy and a picture of sure-footed calm, with an ability to occupy the crease that sets him apart from batsmen on both sides.

Finally finding a partner in Peter Siddle, Smith sapped the energy from England’s seamers and the shine from the ball, before accelerating with Nathan Lyon in support.

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Joe Root and his bowlers looked bewildered. So reminiscent was Smith of his 2017-18 Ashes form that the men in the middle must have wondered if the last 20 months had been a surreal fever dream.

But Cape Town did happen and as it stands, Steve Smith is still the chastened former captain. In that context and given the balance of the match, it was an astonishing show of mental strength to perform like this in his first innings back.

In the short term, Smith’s leadership-by-example takes some of the heat away that might have faced Paine, particularly given how he threw his own wicket away.

But on this evidence, you can’t escape the feeling he’s keeping the captaincy warm until Cricket Australia feel the time is right to restore Smith. Paine needs runs and needs them soon.

Steve Smith’s redemption tale is not yet complete, but it is certainly on fast forward after only day one of this series.

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