It was a story of two halves at Edgbaston. The first saw England dominate with the ball despite the absence of James Anderson who had to leave the field after bowling just four overs, and the other in which, Smith marked a fairy tale return to Test match cricket with an outstanding century that looked to have taken his side out of the deep mire they were in.
At 122/8, Australia looked to be staring at a familiar story of struggling in tough, overseas conditions. But Smith held his end up to notch up his 24th Test century, and added a stunning 162 runs for the final two wickets with Peter Siddle and Nathan Lyon to guide Australia into a situation of not just relative strength but also a position from where they will fell confident they can even dictate terms on that surface.
It wasn’t all straightforward for Smith. Having come to the crease in the eighth over after the loss of David Warner and Cameron Bancroft, Smith was troubled by the masterful away movement that both bowlers were getting at that stage. His time in the middle, especially in the first session was ugly to the sight, but undeterred by a partisan English crowd looking to get under the skins of the Australian tainted trio of Smith, Warner and Bancroft, Smith carried on undeterred.
Smith hadn’t even settled down at the crease when Usman Khawaja fell to a faint nick to the keeper to leave Australia stuttering at 35 for three.
A confident Travis Head joined him at the crease and with Anderson out injured early in the piece and Broad and Woakes nearing the end of their spells, batting became much easier for him and the former captain. Australia went to lunch at 83 for three but it was after the break that things went really awry for them.
Head missed a ball he thought was going to leave him from Woakes and was caught plumb in front, before the same bowler accounted for Matthew Wade, lbw again. And when Broad returned to the attack and sent captain Tim Paine and James Pattinson back in the span of three balls - albeit thanks to some luck going their way - Australia looked to be staring at the wrong end of the barrel.
Pat Cummins didn’t survive too long after that but in Siddle, Smith found an able partner. For starters, it was a case of survival and milking the strike, as Smith went on to register another half-century but as the pair’s confidence grew, the runs began to flow as well.
In the absence of bowling potency after Broad and Woakes, and with Stokes struggling to find any rhythm, Australia marched on with an 88-run partnership for the ninth wicket. A tired attack finally managed to dislodge Siddle, Moeen Ali getting an inside edge that went straight to the short-leg, but that wasn’t the end of their misery.
Another frustrating partnership for the final wicket, which also saw Smith get to another Test century, helped Australia get to 284. Smith threw his bat once he got to his 100, finishing on 144, smashing 41 off his final 36 balls before falling to one such stroke off Broad to give him his fifth wicket.
This was after the Australian captain Tim Paine won the toss earlier and decided to bat first leaving Joe Root reasonably happy with the call because of the cloud cover. And Broad and Woakes looked like they had proved their captain right with early strikes in both, the first and second session of play. Unfortunately for the hosts, the absence of their talisman Anderson and the waywardness of Stokes looked to have cost them dear.
They will still go into the second day knowing they are not chasing a mountain of a score by any stretch but recent showings with the bat might not fill them with a lot of confidence.