JIMMY Anderson, England’s all-time leading wicket-taker and most potent threat, admits Steve Smith demanded unique tactics in a bid to take the Australian captain out of the bowler’s mind.
England set defensive fields to Smith, hoping to bore him into submission with some short-pitched bowling but the classy right-hander didn’t offer a single chance while grafting the nation’s slowest Test ton since 2010.
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“You’ve almost got to take him out of the picture when you’re bowling,” Anderson said in Adelaide, where the second Test starts on Saturday.
“Because if your eyeline is watching him and what he’s doing then I think it really distracts you from where you want the ball to go.
“You’ve got to really try and almost blank him out and really focus on where you want the ball to go.
“The plans to him — I wouldn’t say they didn’t work but we didn’t get him out.
“They worked to an extent. We dried his runs up and made him work really hard for his hundred but obviously we want to get him out.”
Anderson admitted Smith’s ton was “the difference between the two teams” in Brisbane, where the man of he match led his side to a 1-0 lead in the five-Test series.
GOING TO REWRITE THE HISTORY BOOKS
Steve Waugh is in awe of Steve Smith’s century-laden push to rewrite the record books.
Waugh has added his voice to the chorus of former Australia skippers — including Ricky Ponting, Greg and Ian Chappell — who have showered Smith with praise following his unbeaten 141 in the Ashes opener.
Waugh, who sits third on Australia’s list of all-time Test run-scorers with 10,927, says his modern-day successor is “incredible”.
“He’s almost going to rewrite the history books the way he is playing, 21 centuries in 57 Tests — and he didn’t do so well in his first 10 or so,” Waugh told reporters in Sydney.
“He’s got an insatiable appetite for runs, a bit like (Sachin) Tendulkar and Ponting.
“The great players just want to keep scoring runs, they love batting and that’s what he does well.
“He concentrates well, overcomes plans well and just when you think you’ve got him in a weak moment he’ll find a way out of it.”
FRONTLINE BOWLERS NEED SUPPORT
Australia’s frontline bowlers could feel the pinch later in the Ashes series, according to Waugh.
The pace trio of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood and spinner Nathan Lyon bowled all but three overs in the first Test in Brisbane. They combined for all 116.4 overs in England’s first innings and did almost all the work in the tourists’ second dig.
The only relief came from captain and part-time leggie Steve Smith, who bowled three overs.
Lyon toiled the hardest of the Australians sending down 60 overs for the match with the quicks all contributing between 38 and 44.
Irrespective of whether Ben Stokes becomes available, England look to have a better balance.
They have a couple of handy all-rounders in Moeen Ali and Chris Woakes in addition to specialist bowlers Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad and Jake Ball.
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Specialist batsman Shaun Marsh occupies the No. 6 spot in an Australian side with few part-time bowling options.
“Ideally you would want someone who can bowl in the top six,” said Waugh, whose handy medium pace often helped relieve his frontline bowlers.
“That’s probably a bit of a gap, but the guys are resilient.
“I guess maybe the third, fourth, fifth Tests is where it might show up if the frontline bowlers are tired.
“If you’ve only got four bowlers you’ve got to bowl the quicks at least 20 overs a day and that’s a big ask.
“If England bat well and bat long, then the guys are going to be a bit tired. So you’d want some overs from Steve Smith or someone like that at some stage.”
Waugh said he could see improvement from both sides going into the second Test in Adelaide starting on Saturday afternoon.
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