Cherish Smith's Brilliance For All It's Worth As The Records Continue To Fall Around Us

Alison Mitchell lauds the feats of the magnificent Steve Smith and also highlights a great year for the women’s game

- Alison Mitchell

It was after the Sydney Test of 12 months ago that Steve Smith first permitted himself to pause and reflect. He had just completed his 50th Test match, and it was the team doctor at the time, Peter Brukner, who informed the Australian captain that he was now one of only four players to have an average of 60 after playing 50 Tests (Don Bradman, Herbert Sutcliffe and Jack Hobbs being the others). Given his idiosyncrasies and twitchy movements at the crease, it must have taken quite some effort for Smith to stand still for a moment and take in what he had achieved. His conclusion? That it would be “nice to get up there” with those greats of the games.

One year on, that average stood at 63.55 leading into the traditional New Year Test at the SCG. As captain, and under the spotlight of an Ashes series, Smith has added two centuries and a double hundred to his extraordinary career tally. By the end of the Sydney Test he may be close to the all-time highest rating tally ever reached by a batsman – Bradman’s 961 points achieved in February 1948. As impressive as any of his feats though has been his ability to adapt. He has scored his slowest and second slowest Test hundreds during this series – one a match-winning century and the other a match-saving one – and he has talked about adapting mid-innings to the way the England bowlers have bowled to him.

And boy, the bowlers have tried a lot of things. Not even a blow on the hand in the nets could stop Smith – he simply adjusted his grip on the bat. He has been adapting ever since the Perth Test of 2013 when he first stepped across his stumps and found that, in his words, “something clicked”.