Smith's burned reviews bring England fans cheer

Plenty has gone right for Steven Smith so far in the Ashes, but he endured a frustrating evening in Adelaide as the series came to life amid magnificent tension.

Missed an early breakthrough

Alastair Cook was facing Josh Hazlewood at the start of the fourth over of England’s chase with just a run on the board. He was pinned on the pads and the Australians screamed an appeal. Chris Gaffaney said not out and, eventually, Steven Smith declined a review. A few moments later replays showed Cook would have been given out.

No edge

England’s innings was rocking following the loss of James Vince to a horrid drive when Pat Cummins ripped a delivery through Joe Root, the ball flying to Tim Paine as the lights started to take effect. This time Smith did review, for the edge, but the TV evidence showed the ball at clipped the top of Root’s leg and the England captain survived.

The wrong lbw to review

Just two balls later, the third umpire was in action again. Perhaps trying to even up his day after missing the Cook lbw early, Smith went upstairs for what always looked an optimistic shout when Dawid Malan was taken high on the pad by Hazlewood from round the wicket. Malan was on his toes, the ball struck above the knee roll and the replays confirmed it was missing. Under the new system of no top-ups, Australia’s reviews were gone.

In his own hands

Smith had a chance to put his frustrations behind him, and give the outstanding Nathan Lyon another wicket, when Malan edged a lovely delivery towards him at slip but, having been so safe during the series, he couldn’t cling on. Malan was on 8 off 47 at the time, but Australia did remove him shortly before the close of a magnificently high-octane session during which the Barmy Army enjoyed reminding Smith of his earlier errors by making the review sign with every Australian appeal.

Source: ESPN Crickinfo

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