2nd Test, Lord's, London

[stephen]

I'm not at all convinced it is, really. Most of that record is due to Herath in SL and Jadeja in India, hardly a situation ripe for scoring tons of runs (and Smith still managed in the latter case).

I'd definitely still rather bowl good outswing to him than meh left-arm orthodox.

Yeah that Sri Lanka series was a failure. He only averaged 41 in the series.

 

[Spark]

Didn't Maharaj have his number too though

Maharaj got him out twice IIRC, one of which was that extremely unfortunate (dubious, even) LBW at Perth where he was about halfway down the pitch

 

[TheJediBrah]

Maharaj got him out twice IIRC, one of which was that extremely unfortunate (dubious, even) LBW at Perth where he was about halfway down the pitch

Getting Smith out twice is a pretty huge achievement lol

 

[morgieb]

I'm not at all convinced it is, really. Most of that record is due to Herath in SL and Jadeja in India, hardly a situation ripe for scoring tons of runs (and Smith still managed in the latter case).

I'd definitely still rather bowl good outswing to him than meh left-arm orthodox.

Didn't he kinda struggle against Shakib in Bangladesh?

 

[Gob]

Maharaj got him out twice IIRC, one of which was that extremely unfortunate (dubious, even) LBW at Perth where he was about halfway down the pitch

Maharaj had him 3 times and Dean ****ing Elgar two times

 

[Spark]

Really curious where they got this new curator from...

 

[the big bambino]

Maharaj got him out twice IIRC, one of which was that extremely unfortunate (dubious, even) LBW at Perth where he was about halfway down the pitch

Should never have given that lbw and put the onus on the bowling team to use one of their referrals.

 

[StephenZA]

Might ruin the batting techniques of a whole generation. Not that they're any good otherwise these days.

One of the nicer things that has come about from some of the more unorthodox successful techniques is that is does not matter how awkward you look to get there; as long as you are still and play the ball under your eyes, the rest becomes almost secondary.

 

[quincywagstaff]

Maharaj got him out twice IIRC, one of which was that extremely unfortunate (dubious, even) LBW at Perth where he was about halfway down the pitch

Maharaj has gotten him out three times and Smith was dismissed 3 times out of 4 on 2017 tour where he had a pretty average series.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Problem with this field to Smith is England are having a bob each way. I think they need to pick a side of the field and focus on it. Either stick to full outside off and stack the off side, or focus on attacking the stumps but put 5 men on the leg side to restrict the easy singles

 

[Spark]

Didn't he kinda struggle against Shakib in Bangladesh?

Yeah quite possibly.

 

[Starfighter]

Isn't getting out to Jadeja in India (and he scored a load of runs in the last series there), and especially Herath and Shakib at home kind of superfluous when they're the best bowlers in their team who bowl a huge proportion of the overs, and the conditions in Bang and SL have been excessively friendly to them too.

 

[StephenZA]

Maharaj had him 3 times and Dean ****ing Elgar two times

Don't diss the Elgar hand grenades.... wait until you see the wonders of Markram in India.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Has Smith played anything off the front foot today?

 

[Spark]

Isn't getting out to Jadeja in India (and he scored a load of runs in the last series there), and especially Herath and Shakib at home kind of superfluous when they're the best bowlers in their team who bowl a huge proportion of the overs, and the conditions in Bang and SL have been excessively friendly to them too.

Yeah this is basically my point. Getting out to Maharaj and Elgar is a little bit more eyebrow-raising but "found Jadeja and Herath hard to play in spinning conditions" is hardly a sign of a critical weakness.

 

[Starfighter]

Yeah this is basically my point. Getting out to Maharaj and Elgar is a little bit more eyebrow-raising but "found Jadeja and Herath hard to play in spinning conditions" is hardly a sign of a critical weakness.

We should also remember things like Kohli getting out to swing bowling and Anderson a heap in 2014 but not last year.

 

[Spark]

We should also remember things like Kohli getting out to swing bowling and Anderson a heap in 2014 but not last year.

Oh yeah but I don't think we even need to go there for Smith. If you can score runs off Jadeja bowling as he was on those pitches, you can probably play left arm spin.

Archer is going to be ridiculous when he actually works out how to bowl at Test level.

 

[stephen]

I think Smith's troubles in Bangladesh were more to do with mental fatigue from hitting three hundreds in India than anything the Deshis were doing.

 

[quincywagstaff]

Yeah this is basically my point. Getting out to Maharaj and Elgar is a little bit more eyebrow-raising but "found Jadeja and Herath hard to play in spinning conditions" is hardly a sign of a critical weakness.

Compared to his record against all other bowling I'd say it's a pretty big weakness. And with regards to spin, it's not like he's had major problems against other types of highly regarded spinners.

 

[Starfighter]

That was an eventful over.