Smith masters hard ball and soft

They are fewer and further between these days, more prevalent in cricket hotbeds like Antigua and Trinidad than elsewhere. Even so, an observant traveller to the Caribbean can still glimpse the numerous informal versions of the game that for years helped sustain the region's talent growth where system and infrastructure were lacking.

While beach cricket is the most famous of these, tape ball cricket and tennis ball cricket are two of the more distinctive sub-genres, requiring different sets of skills and testing different elements of a young player's technique and mental application. The separation of these two competitions is a feature of many islands, some played at night and some during the day.

A similar sense of duality was evident on day one at Sabina Park, where Australia's batsmen faced an entirely different set of questions from those presented to them in Dominica. For one, they were batting first, and duty-bound to set the agenda for the Test. For two they were confronted with a pitch offering far more initial life than Windsor Park's slower, dustier strip. And for three, Jerome Taylor summoned an opening spell of the rarest quality.

For batsmen who had become used to playing for lower bounce and slower pace over the past three weeks, Sabina Park's early life was a decided shock. David Warner barely had time to prod the pitch before he had fended the sharpest of lifters into the slips, and Shaun Marsh's defence against steep bounce was to be so far back in his crease that Richard Kettleborough could give him out lbw to a ball swinging and seaming in from around the wicket.

What the situation required was calmness, versatility and sharpness of reaction. In other words, Steven Smith. This, at the 28th time of asking, was the first time Smith had found himself batting in the opening over of a Test match. Some No. 3 batsmen like Ricky Ponting were not obliged to do this terribly often. Others like Ian Chappell have had to cope with it an awful lot. Smith responded in the unflappable manner of a quality "first drop".

That first three balls, Smith played a flick to midwicket, a watchful push back down the pitch and was beaten by Taylor as he played down the line. The last delivery was significant, for the younger, jerkier Smith would have pushed out further, following the movement. By covering his stumps but venturing no further he diminished the chances of an edge as the best top-order batsmen have often tried to do.

"Batting at number three now that's going to happen here and there," Smith said of his early entry. "I guess my game's got to be up to it, to the challenge of a new ball. Sometimes guys are going to miss out and I could be in on the first ball. I've got my head around that. I know what I need to do if I get out there, and I guess that's do what I did today. Give myself a chance, be patient, watch the ball closely and try to build an innings."

Smith's collected, concentrating mien was to be demonstrated across the rest of the morning. There was a hint of how he handled Pakistan's menacing Wahab Riaz in a tense World Cup quarter-final in Adelaide, all straight bat and risk aversion. He had no concern about taking his time, allowing the bowlers to tire themselves out by being brought back for multiple spells.

One man not brought back for those spells was the only member of the West Indies attack who looked capable of defeating Smith. After Taylor's outstanding first spell of 5-5-0-2, he did not bowl again until the penultimate over of the morning session. Later on, he was not allowed to take the second new ball late in the day, and bowled only 15 of the 90 overs required. Smith wondered why.

"I actually thought he might have bowled a few more to start with," Smith said of Taylor, owner of an enviable bowling record at his home ground. "He only bowled five overs in his spell and he had two for nought. I was a little bit surprised with that and I was very surprised they didn't take the new ball at the end tonight. Worked out well for us, I guess."

The rest of the day contrasted enormously with the first hour, as much as tape and tennis balls. From a start where the ball was flying around, swinging and seaming, Smith ended the day having faced as many balls twirled down from the spinners as he did from the pacemen. The ability to pull back against a softer ball and slower bowling, to not be lured into searching too hard for the ball, was critical.

Neither Michael Clarke nor Adam Voges were able to master it, as both batsmen perished when going out searching hard for runs. They were left, alongside Warner and Marsh, to watch Smith calmly accumulate with a combination of deft leg side flicks, strong off side forcing strokes and cuts, and the occasional sally forth to loft down the ground. A rare stumping from a Devendra Bishoo leg break in Dominica did not dissuade him from this brand of adventure.

"I think last week that sort of thing happens," Smith said. "He bowled me a ball out the front and it spun quite sharply. I felt last week that I wasn't going to get beaten on the outside of my bat and today it was a little bit the same. It doesn't really matter if you get stumped by an inch or a metre. It's about covering that as much as I can and just trying to get the bowler off their lengths."

All told, it was another significant step forward for Smith during a phase in which he has made them virtually every innings. There will be greater challenges than that of West Indies, of course, but by starting calmly against the new ball, establishing partnerships and then surviving to bat another day, Smith showed he had the stuff of the best No. 3 batsmen. And that includes against tape ball or tennis ball.