Another Test match, another new challenge for Jamie Smith, and another met as if encountered a hundred times before.
On a rain-hit day two of the First Test against Sri Lanka at Old Trafford, the novice keeper-batter’s unbeaten 72 took England clear of trouble and into the lead.
Fresh from a debut series against the West Indies that justified his acceleration from promising county batter to a place behind the Test stumps, here Smith was promoted again, to No6, and asked to fill a slot usually reserved for Ben Stokes.
The 24-year-old arrived at the crease in just his fourth Test match with England in a pickle, on 125 for four in reply to Sri Lanka’s 236, and with only the bowlers to come. By stumps, with a fine blend of his usual aggression and notable maturity, he had them 23 runs ahead with four wickets still in hand.
At the time of his call up, there were questions as to the wisdom of elevating such precocious talent to so much responsibility so soon, but Smith continues to make the game’s hardest format look simple. Some might sniff that, against this summer’s undercooked opposition, it is, but that would do a disservice here to a Sri Lanka side fighting hard.
That the tourists are still well in the contest having been six for three half-an-hour into it yesterday speaks volumes for their efforts, with Asitha Fernando exploiting seam-friendly conditions to take three three top-order wickets and spinner Prabath Jayasuriya later claiming two with magical balls.
Sri Lanka had been forced to start the innings with slow bowlers under poor light late on day one and abandoned that project after four overs for fear of gifting England with too soft a start. They were due to resume on the second morning on 22 without loss, but that was delayed until the south side of an early lunch by Manchester rain.
Until Smith’s arrival, it had been another day of bits, pieces and half-narratives, England never truly on top or in control, but always moving towards parity at a decent enough click to suggest they would get there, at the very least.
Ollie Pope was out cheaply in his maiden innings as captain, beaten by one from Asitha Fernando that nipped back just enough to find passage through a broad, swinging gate.
There was an innings of 30 from makeshift opener Dan Lawrence that leaves the jury very much unmoved on what will only, in any case, be a temporary fix. The Surrey batter overturned one lbw decision, pulled twice to the square boundary in good style, but then poked at one pushed cleverly across him by the other Fernando, Vishwa, on the breeze.
The door looked ajar then, at 67 for three, and again when the superb Asitha returned to burst Joe Root’s bubble in the midst of a probing spell of reverse swing. At that point, England were still more than a hundred in arrears, and Sri Lanka one wicket away from Chris Woakes and a long home tail.
Rather than seek the quick kill, though, the tourists tried the slow death approach, packing the off-side and guarding the fence, aided by a slow, soggy outfield that made hard-run threes the scoring norm. Brook, in particular, was frustrated for a spell but the offering of cheap singles meant the scoreboard still ticked quickly through what felt a pedestrian hour approaching tea.
Brook eventually worked things out and drove beautifully, moving to his ninth Test fifty to go with five hundreds in only 16 games. At the head of a long evening session, though, he was undone by an unplayable delivery from the hand of Jayasuriya, one ball turning more than all the rest of the day’s combined.
Smith, for instance, had had little trouble lining up the spinner and striking clean down the ground for the day’s first six, his intent initially undimmed by a promotion to fill Ben Stokes’s usual slot at No6.
Into a mammoth evening session, though, that changed. Sri Lanka were disciplined with the ball and sharp in the field despite stiffening muscles, while England’s batters paid due respect. Smith reached 50 with a single, his previous three runs having been spread across 20 balls.
Finally, though, things began to happen again. Smith’s cover drive crept through the sludge to a previously unreachable boundary to take England into the leave, an over before Jayasuriya struck again with another ripper to get Woakes, the 32-year-old offering clues as to how exactly he had claimed 71 wickets in his first dozen Tests.
Woakes had, by then, played a decent supporting hand with 25 as the sole all-rounder of note. The onus tomorrow will be on Smith, batting with the tail, to press the advantage home.
