Yeah but trying to match a mammoth score in the first innings is one of the toughest things to do in cricket even on flat decks. It's enormously taxing mentally, not to mention with a massive score on the board, the fielding team has licence to keep attacking fields in for basically the entire innings so small mistakes tend to be punished easily.
I did say he played well, and he never really looked like getting out. He saw off the new ball which was probably the key bit and then took advantage later (when his team mates should also have done so).
In fact, I believe most are
Aussies have padded massively versus the Windies.
The difference is that Smith is still obviously a great player even if you take Windies out of the equation. Regardless of whether Labuschagne fills his boots against them, you only need to look at his overall record against nearly every other team to conclude that he is nowhere near the same class.
Got the chance to next year, 3 Tests against them and SL. I mean win 5 of those and England would be right in the WTC picture.
remember the days when the windies vs England was 5 tests, sometimes 6, been 4 and 3 for quite a long time
Yeah, thats obvious even watching them bat. One is an ATG, other is not.
I am a little sceptical that it will be so easy for him to change the record so significantly away from home given that he is quite some way into his career. Up to a point, it is a surprise he hasn't done better in UK tests given a) his good series in 2019 and b) that he's played plenty of county cricket for Glamorgan. It just shows how unique Australia as a place is to bat these days. Pace and bounce aplenty and very little lateral movement, especially with the drop-in pitches.
