THE bad feeling between the teams was evident again on day one of the Second Test.
But the source of England’s anger is based on a false premise.
Joe Root and his players seem to believe that Aussie captain Steve Smith was mocking and laughing at them at the end of the First Test.
Smith corpsed in fits of giggles when listening to Cameron Bancroft give a dead-pan, hilarious press conference in which he described the moment Jonny Bairstow headbutted him at the start of the tour.
He also revealed that he has the heaviest head in the Western Australia team! Yes, it really was measured.
It was comedy gold and Smith, sitting next to Bancroft on the top table, could not contain his mirth.
Nor could anybody else in the room. The place was roaring with laughter and myself and my colleagues were in stitches.
So there was no way Smith was taking the Mickey out of England. He was just chuckling at a genuinely funny interview by the debutant Bancroft.
Root said before the game in Adelaide that Smith’s grinning visage would motivate his players. Fine, whatever floats their boat but they got it wrong about Smith motives.
Stuart Broad took it upon himself to get into Smith’s face. He sledged him, he blocked his path and bowled a decent spell.
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It was an England plan to try to unsettle the Aussie captain. Anything to get him out of his bubble of concentration and patience.
For a time, it almost worked because Smith was scratchy at the start of his innings.
James Anderson also bowled a good couple of overs at him and joined in the verbal assault.
Later, in the final session, Anderson and Smith clashed again when the England bowler fielded on the edge of the strip right next to where Smith was backing up at the bowler’s end.
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