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Jamie Smith’s 67 in the third Test against Sri Lanka at The Oval on Sunday brought back memories of Australia great Adam Gilchrist for England assistant coach Paul Collingwood on what was otherwise a testing day for the home side.
England, who were already 2-0 up in the three-match series, suffered a dramatic collapse at the top of the table, falling to 82-7 on the third day.
Wicketkeeper Smith’s outstanding performance of 50 balls, including 10 fours and a six, on his home ground in Surrey helped them return to 156 all out in their second innings.
That left Sri Lanka chasing 219 to win their first Test match in England for a decade and at stumps they were on course at 94-1, with Pathum Nissanka 53 not out – the opener’s second half-century of the match.
Without Smith, 24, who has now scored three fifties and one hundred in six Tests since making his England debut in July, Sri Lanka might already be on the brink of victory.
Collingwood, a former England all-rounder, played against Gilchrist, an exceptional wicketkeeper and batsman renowned for his run-scoring dynamism in the ranks. He now finds some of the same qualities in rising star Smith.
“He (Smith) is certainly an artist,” Collingwood told reporters after the election.
“You go back to the time of Adam Gilchrist when he came over as a seven-year-old for Australia.
“He (Smith) is going to put a lot of teams under pressure when you have the skills and power that he has.
“It ruins the opponent’s life when someone has the ability to do something like that. He’s certainly shown great skills in his short Test career.”
– “It’s not one of our best days” –
But there was no denying that Sri Lanka were ahead at the end.
“It’s certainly not one of our best days of Test cricket this year,” Collingwood said. “It’s quite easy to make an excuse and say it’s complacency but there’s a lot of enjoyment and desire in there.
“We wanted a draw. The lads are very proud to play for England so there was certainly no complacency before this game. The lads in the dressing room will be throwing their hands up in the air.”
Collingwood insisted, however, that all was not lost for England.
“We still have a chance to win the game,” he said. “There is enough ground on the pitch to take nine wickets but we need a lot of things to go in our favour.”
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s fast bowling coach Aaqib Javed praised the tourists’ pace, with Lahiru Kumara taking 4-21 on Sunday and Vishwa Fernando’s 3-40 win including the scalp of prize-winning Joe Root, lbw for 12 to the left-hander’s excellent inbound yorker.
“If you look at the whole series, our bowlers have done a good job already,” former Pakistan paceman Javed said.
“For this match, we focused on the extra service and it paid off… We wanted to do well outside and the fast bowlers stood out.”
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