Jamie Smith said the third Test, and with it the series, “will be decided by small margins” on a wicket that has already troubled batters and promises worse to come. “People didn’t quite know what to expect from that surface,” he said after 13 wickets fell on the opening day. While many of his teammates struggled to score, Smith hit six of the day’s seven sixes – “It was more luck than judgment with some of those,” he said – and five fours as England fought back from 98 for five and 118 for six to post a first-innings total of 267.
Wicketkeeper’s superb marshalling of the tail was a demonstration of the class and composure that marks him out as a player of real promise
On a spicy turning surface that saw spinners take 12 of the 13 wickets to fall, Smith found a way to return fire as he made a dashing 89.