Smith becomes Australia's lightning rod
In March 2015, Steven Smith had the best seat in the house - the non-striker's end - as Wahab Riaz went after Shane Watson in a World Cup quarter-final under lights at Adelaide Oval. It was the most pulsating passage of the tournament, so entertaining as to merit an ICC sanction for both players, and impossible to look away from.
But the other striking thing about it was how much the tension eased whenever Watson managed to get to the other end. Smith did not have anywhere near as much trouble, almost as though Wahab was saving his aggression for Watson alone, and his calm accumulation helped Australia ease to victory despite Pakistan's febrile efforts.
Two and a half years on and now it was Smith who found himself the lightning rod for desperate opponents. This time they were Joe Root's Englishmen, enraged by elements of the Australians' conduct at the Gabba and also operating in the knowledge that defeat in Adelaide would more or less decide this Ashes series in the space of two matches. Smith faced 90 balls on the first evening of the day/night Test, and throughout was given barely a moment's peace.
There was, immediately, a contrast to the way England approached Smith in Brisbane. There and then, they had seemed intent upon suffocating Smith's scoring as though it was the oxygen on which his batting breathes. To a degree it worked - the phrase "making him work hard for his runs" has seldom been more aptly applied - but Smith did not let it faze him, simple recalibrating for a long innings that grew into the slowest but perhaps also most monumental of all his Test centuries to date.
In reflecting on how England had tried to bore him out, Smith expressed a natural love for spending time at the crease that suggested it was not a method likely to stretch him. "I'm happy with that, I love batting so I'm happy to stay out there for as long as I can to be perfectly honest," he said. "I don't like being back in the sheds, I prefer being out in the middle and just doing my thing. If it takes me 300 balls to get a 100, then it'll take me 300 balls. That'll also tire the bowlers quite a bit too, so it's a bit of a win-win if that's the case. But I'll just adapt to whatever they throw at me."
"Whatever they throw" turned out to be a level of overt hostility not commonly associated with the team of Joe Root, and seldom seen from any England side since the James Anderson and Ravindra Jadeja affair at Nottingham in 2014 - perhaps not entirely oincidentally the last Test ever played by Matt Prior. Smith of course knew England had players in their number who had made life difficult for him in the past, none more so than Anderson in 2010-11. He had been happy to suggest hypocrisy on Anderson's part when responding to the Lancastrian's accusation that Australia played like "bullies", happy to kick a supine opponent.
But that awareness could not have prepared Smith for the level of prickliness he encountered virtually from the moment he walked out to bat after the dismissal of David Warner, who followed a Chris Woakes delivery that seamed away in contradiction to his earlier forbearance in leaving balls angled across him. Almost immediately, Smith was the target of verbal confrontation, though from Stuart Broad rather than Anderson. At one point Broad punched his chest in what appeared a mocking reference to Smith's century celebration, while maintaining a constant unfriendly dialogue.
After some time and deliveries had passed, Anderson elected to join in, not least when provocatively posted to a very short mid on for Pete Handscomb which meant he was scarcely more than a metre away from Smith. Their level of chatter, banter, chirping or sledging - take your pick among the many euphemisms available - was intense enough to cause the umpire Aleem Dar not merely to ask them to desist but to physically step between the pair, recalling Tony Crafter's 1981-82 intervention in Perth to stop Javed Miandad from using his bat to fell Dennis Lillee after the fast bowler had essayed a kick at the pugilistic Pakistani.
Smith has built a considerable level of toughness throughout his years in then out of, then back in the Australian side, and is able to dish out as much as he cops. Famously, as a teenager in Sydney club cricket, he once responded to some hours of sustained sledging from an older opposing bowler by eventually asking "how old are you?" When the 30something reply arrived, his retort of "and you're still playing second grade?" ensured little more was said.
Nevertheless, England's attack on Smith had the desired effect, meaning he stayed in the middle for less than a third of the deliveries soaked up in Brisbane, and also looked somewhat out of form and rhythm throughout his stay in the middle. Conditions, it must be said, were more challenging than those in Brisbane, combining seam movement, some variance in pace off the pitch, and the inherent challenge of a pink ball under lights. There was a harried passive aggression about the way Smith took to refusing singles later in his innings, thrusting his bat down the pitch in a manner that begged the question of whether his parents had ever counselled him about the rudeness of pointing.
When Craig Overton enjoyed the moment of his cricketing life so far, bowling Smith off bat and pad to claim a first Test wicket, it was an excellent delivery, of good length and nipping back, to draw gasps from 55,317 spectators. But as the first ball of a new spell it also looked to have caught Smith at a moment when his concentration was not quite at the sharpest. In reference to the often fractious India tour earlier this year, in which he was by a distance the best batsman on either side, Smith said that by series' end he was so drained that he did not think himself capable of batting for as long a period as at the beginning, so felt compelled to try to score faster. England will hope that Smith's mental reserves are similarly stretched in this series.
Despite seeing Smith dismissed for only 40, Australia ended the day with far more satisfaction than England. A tally of 4 for 209 after being sent in to bat was handsome, built upon a more collective effort than that of the Gabba. Warner's early patience was useful even as England bowled too short and Cameron Bancroft was needlessly sacrificed by a run out, then Usman Khawaja got himself into the series with an innings of 53 helped by Mark Stoneman's abject drop at fine leg. Finally Shaun Marsh built the foundations of a meaningful stand with Pete Handscomb even though the West Australian showed a far higher degree of comfort in the middle than the wilfully creasebound Victorian.
Their survival through to the close was, of course, due to their own efforts. But it was doubtless made easier by the fact that each Australian batsman was able to fly "under the radar" relative to Smith, who made himself very much the lightning rod for England's vitriol, planning and most intense bowling.
In that way, he was able to absorb the efforts of the visitors like Watson had done against Wahab in the World Cup. Now, as then, it meant the Australians will sleep as much the more contented team.