Ashes 2019: Steve Smith’s brave defiance in duel with Jofra Archer ignites stop-start second Test

The Australian talisman was treated twice after being hit by 90mph+ deliveries from England’s fast-bowler

The second ball Steve Smith faced after lunch was met with a lavish straight drive. He was on 57 and there was an inevitability about what was coming. Before lunch, he reached his half-century lifting Jack Leach over wide long-on, rotating an unnecessary 180 degrees after making contact. The crowd forgot to boo. Through the morning they were too busy laughing, at his knee kicks and bat waving and so on. This unusual and brilliant chap’s love affair with London was going to continue with his third ton in a row. That was just that.

Jofra Archer went to the long break with five spells and 21 overs under his belt. He was still sending them down sharply but the game wasn’t being played on his terms to the extent they had been the previous morning. In the pre-Test phoney war, Justin Langer said he wouldn’t mind seeing the debutant bowling deep in an innings – like this. In reply, the shiny new spearhead said that the coach had “another thing coming” if he thought it was that simple.

So Archer set off from the pavilion end, in a way that you can see him doing for a decade or more. With his sixth ball of the shift, the short leg he had been given was snaffling the chance his off-cutter produced, the 60-run stand put together by Smith and Tim Paine finished with the captain’s dismissal. Out walked Pat Cummins. This was Archer’s job: to romp through the lower order in the best traditions of the scary quick. That was the plan to stop Smith.

Then the 71st over happened. To begin, the Australian dispatched Archer in a manner that he can’t be that used to. It was the shot played against the offerings of a bowler ten miles slower. If Smith is shifted into top gear by the difficulty of the task ahead of him, Archer is triggered by batsmen not respecting his gifts. This would be the last time a delivery was sent down from him south of 90mph. In a sign of what was to come, the final ball was short – so fast that Smith couldn’t get his arm out of the way. It made a grim sound: ball-on-bone, not flesh.

From the top of his mark, Archer watched as the minutes elapsed. Would Smith be able to continue? The medical staff strapped up the forearm and popped on a guard. He wasn’t going anywhere. Jack Leach’s over at the other end was nothing more than the chance to take a breath. He played his part by keeping Cummins down the business end to ensure that it was showtime again at the first possible moment. It was going to be on and everybody knew it.

In Dharamsala in March 2017, after compiling his third century of a high-octane series against India, Smith explained that he was so spent that he knew within himself that he could only summon the energy to maintain his necessary level of concentration for a few hours. After the blow to the arm, he took Archer in a manner that suggested he was short on time again.

When the first ball bouncer came, the swipe taken at it was unnecessary but a statement of intent – the small top edge he got on it just cleared the cordon. When he hooked the next bouncer, Lord’s gasped in the collective realisation that he was going to swing at everything.

Getting back on strike by the end of the over, a 96mph rocket nearly ended up at short leg via Smith’s struck glove. Archer hunched over in dismay – what more could he do? Exhale. The next time around, Smith watched at the non-strikers’ end as Cummins absorbed the entirety of the next fierce set, three times beating him at balls in excess of 93mph. Was Joe Root going to give him another over? Five overs is a spell when the new ball is around the corner.

Steve Smith is treated after being struck on the arm (Getty)

He did, surely because it was Smith on strike. Two men were out for the hook and another catcher around the corner for the miscue behind the square leg umpire. Did it matter? Not at all. The bumper again came first, Smith hooking and clearing the close-in fielder, bisecting the boundary riders. He was 80. This may not have been the route he expected to take when in such control immediately after lunch but the result, it looked, was going to be the same.

But the fifth opportunity that Archer had at Smith after nearly breaking his arm was different – the first short ball that he didn’t swing at. His effortless delivery stride has hurried up the stars of world cricket across his brief international career so far and this time it did the best since Bradman. He turned his head but didn’t did have enough time to get out of the way. Any error in judgment at a ball coming down at 92.4mph is magnified and this one had floored him, smashed on the side of the neck – flat on his face, helmet off, visibly distressed.

Jofra Archer appeals to the umpire (AFP/Getty)

Smith was metres away from Phillip Hughes the day the game changed so tragically and here he was felled by a ball that had hit him in an area that was all too similar. Thankfully, mercifully, he was alert and back on his feet. An important debate will now ensue about whether he should have been wearing a stem guard, a less important one will revolve around the ridiculous suggestion that Archer was somehow laughing at the man he has taken down. Least important of all are the imbeciles, however few in number, who booed when the Australian medical staff insisted that he had to leave the field for formal concussion tests.

As we later learned, those tests are a lot more sophisticated than identifying the number of fingers the doctor is holding up or successfully trying to remember the name of Australia’s most recent prime minister. No sooner had formal word made it through that Smith had cleared those formal hurdles that Pete Siddle’s own brave stay with Pat Cummins had come to an end, successfully seeing off Archer – at long last – after one over with the new ball.

Steve Smith is treated after being struck on the head by Jofra Archer's bouncer (AFP/Getty)

Langer said at stumps that this was partly because he wanted to get back onto the honours board again – of course. So out Smith walked to resume his innings. If he knew after the whack to the arm that his time left was limited, this was certainly the case when lifting Chris Woakes’ over midwicket. But that was counterbalanced with the best stroke he played all day, his eyes firmly over the ball when crunching the seamer through cover. It was a moment of defiance and determination, showing that despite all he had endured, he still wasn’t done.

It didn’t matter that he lost his way four runs later, oddly removed leg before wicket shouldering arms when eight runs short of saluting once again as he so badly wanted to. But still, his point was made; this contribution an unforgettable one in a contest that will be remembered long after the final analysis of this game. Who knows what he and Archer will do tomorrow. Our game doesn't get better than this.