C365 Player of the Week: Steve Smith

There hasn’t been much cricket on the go this week (thanks, Indian weather!), so technically this should be our Player of the Fortnight, and in honour of such a rare title, we’re giving it to a guy with rare talent.
Australia all-rounder Steve Smith wins our coveted gong (the word ‘week’ has been covered with masking tape and ‘fortnight’ written on with marker pen) for both his batting efforts as well as his fielding genius.
In the ODI series against Pakistan in the UAE, which the Aussies won three-nil, Devereux, as he’s lovingly known on Twitter, finally managed to break his ODI century drought, after 39 attempts and four years.
He scored a superb 101 in Sharjah, when the rest of the Aussies struggled in the immense heat, and saw his side to a defendable 255. His bowling colleagues then did the job later on, as they won the game by 93 runs.
Smith’s ton came off 118 balls and featured two sixes, but was notable for its progression, as he compiled the knock with impressive calm and maturity, spanning five partnerships and keeping the innings from falling apart.
He followed that game up with a 77 in the third ODI, without which Pakistan would have won. As it was, the Aussies scraped a one-run win as they defended 231, which they only got thanks to Smith and David Warner’s half tons at the top.
Smith finished as the series’ leading run scorer by a significant margin, and was the only player to score more than 80 in a knock, let alone a century.
Aside from that though, he was in the headlines because of his catch to remove Fawad Alam in the final game. He started at slip, saw Fawad was moving to sweep, to Smith ran around to the leg side while the ball was being delivered, and took the catch.
It was genius because, unlike a lot of players, he knew about a change in the laws, only recently made, which said a close in fielder was now allowed to respond to a batsman’s movements and anticipate where the ball would go. Sneaky bugger, we love it!
Latest
-
News
Ben Stokes to miss rest of Indian Premier League with broken finger
England’s next assignment is seven weeks away.
-
News
ECB explores dropping ‘wickets’ for ‘outs’ in inaugural The Hundred edition
Discussions are ongoing about the proposal for the 100-ball competition featuring eight newly-created teams.
-
News
Jofra Archer cleared to return to light training but IPL involvement unclear
The England paceman had surgery remove a fragment of glass from his finger last month.
-
News
Kumar, Lee named ICC Players of the Month for March
The winners of the ICC Player of the Month Awards for March are India’s Bhuvneshwar Kumar and South Africa’s Lizelle Lee.
-
News
We must keep women’s Test cricket alive, says England captain Heather Knight
Knight’s team will take on India in a four-day clash in Bristol in June.
-
News
Dom Bess determined to prove England worth after India struggles
Bess says he knows what he has ‘got to do now to have a successful international career’.
-
News
Jake Libby earns draw as Somerset, Hampshire and Gloucestershire open with wins
Worcestershire opener Libby made the second-longest Championship innings ever and was on the field for every ball of the match.
-
News
Jofra Archer to find out whether he could feature in IPL next week
Archer has already been ruled out of the initial stages of the tournament after undergoing surgery to remove glass from his finger last month.
-
News
Stuart Broad would support social media boycott as racist abuse continues online
Some football teams and players have taken a break from social media.