Steven Smith interspersed an effective tap-and-run routine with creative big shots to direct Rising Pune Supergiants’ batting effort against Gujarat Lions
Arun Venugopal in Pune30-Apr-2016Steven Smith’s batting can look like a revved-up remix of a Michael Bevan special. Revisit a Smith innings and you will find that your brain hasn’t registered many breathtaking shots – all you may see are images on loop of his restless twitching at the crease, wristy bunts to the leg side and borderline-crazy running. But when you look up the scorecard, there’s a dandy 54-ball 101 staring you down in all its cold authority. How cool is that?Against Gujarat Lions, Smith only had to wait till the third over to unleash his coolness. When he joined Ajinkya Rahane, his fellow busy accumulator at Rajasthan Royals in the past, Rising Pune Supergiants were scoring at a below-par rate. It took Smith only two overs to crank it up. After flicking a first-ball four and loosening up with a few singles, he shot out of the crease to bash the medium pace of Praveen Kumar through the covers. Next ball, Praveen attempted to swing it in to catch him out on the shuffle, but couldn’t beat Smith’s late leg glance, which gave him four more.Smith broke his tap-and-run routine again in the next over by charging seamer Dhawal Kulkarni, who spotted the movement early and bowled a slower ball wide of off. But Smith waited and, with his back leg in the air, stretched out to give the ball a meaty thunk. Four more to the score. From 22 for 1 in four overs, Supergiants had reeled in 26 more in two overs to end the Powerplay at 48 for 1.Steven Smith on Pune’s bowling.
“I thought we were a bit disappointing with the way we bowled. I think we chopped and changed a little bit too much, rather than being nice and patient and hitting a good line and length, and making them go after the good balls. Any time you do that your chances of taking a wicket [increase] and if you take a wicket up top when you’re chasing 195, it makes things very difficult.”
On Supergiants’ two wins coming in away games
“Usually it’s the other way around isn’t it? In a tournament like this it doesn’t really matter where you play; it’s about going out there on any given day, giving it your all. It’s obviously about winning more to get yourself into that top four and, at the moment, we’re not doing that and we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Rahane, meanwhile, was on 23 off 23 balls and might well have stagnated under pressure, or hit out rashly, had Smith not taken it upon himself to ensure the run flow remained fluent. Supergiants scored 37 in the next four overs, despite the field being spread and only three boundaries hit. There were only four dot balls in this period, as Smith pushed himself and Rahane to race through for singles and twos, mostly after cleverly placed dabs and nudges to the leg side – overall, 39 of Smith’s runs came in this fashion.Smith did enjoy a bit of good luck in the tenth over when debutant chinaman bowler Shivil Kaushik overstepped while forcing Smith to sweep one on to his stumps. Smith merrily carted the free-hit over long-off for six; the no-ball, he said, switched him to attack mode.”Probably around [that] point when I said to Rahane, ‘I will go [after the bowling] and you keep batting as you are doing,'” Smith said. “It was nice batting with Ajinkya. He is very quick between the wickets. That’s the kind of player I like to bat with. I like to hit the gaps and run ones and twos.”Lions’ captain Suresh Raina then engaged his death-over specialists – Dwayne Bravo and James Faulkner. Smith was Jackie Chan-esque in response, slipping in a boundary amid a sequence of singles like a punch following pokes to the eye. In the 13th over, he swivelled into a sweep-hoick to put away Faulkner’s slower one for six, before clipping the next ball – a low full toss – wide of long-on and bolting with two runs in mind. Under pressure to prevent the double, Ravindra Jadeja failed to gather the ball which hurried to the fence.While he shuffled around to the seamers, Smith remained still in the crease against slow men Jadeja and Kaushik, getting underneath their fuller deliveries to dispatch them for three straight sixes. All the while he never missed an opportunity to pinch a run, which explained why he finished with just 10 dots. Even when Rahane was about to be run out after backing up too far, Smith was ready for the overthrow in case Bravo missed the stumps. He and Rahane formed a dynamic pairing at long-off and long-on as well but, unfortunately for him, like Virat Kohli, his first T20 century coincided with a mediocre bowling effort from his team.
