Steve Smith: Bending cricket’s law of motion
Can someone film Steve Smith when he is sleeping, please? Does he sleepwalk? Does he ever stay still? If you get past his bodily ticks — the twitches and the frenetic movements of a 3-year old unable to be still, you get to the essence of his art: the time he has to play a shot. Is it an illusion created by feverish moves that when his muscles finally calm down prior to meeting the ball that it seems he has more time The stillness after the storm, creating that illusion but that can’t be it. Just look how late he plays the ball, or leaves it outside off. The military-snap leave in particular, when he yanks the bat at the last instant, in seeming mockery of the bowler — the ball seems to be almost kissing the bat when Smith turns prudish and sends it away harshly. And at times, it does seem he has two shots for a ball — usually said about many good players but only the greats actually possess that. Not even Virat Kohli has that. Kohli’s shots are picture-perfect but they rarely give the impression that he was toying…