England assistant coach Paul Collingwood believes Jamie Smith is quite similar to Australian goalkeeping great Adam Gilchrist.
Paul Collingwood believes Smith can do similar things to what Adam Gilchrist used to do to the opposition during his playing days.
Jamie Smith played a superb knock of 67 off just 50 balls during the second innings of the third Test between England and Sri Lanka at the Oval.
He hit 10 fours and 1 six during his knock and helped England set a target of more than 200 runs for Sri Lanka.
England took the lead after taking a 62-run lead in the first innings. However, Sri Lanka’s bowlers had other ideas and reduced the home side to 82-7 in the second innings. But Smith rallied with the latter to play a brilliant innings under pressure.
Knowing that the bottom-of-the-table could be dismissed at any moment, he started playing aggressively and finished with a blistering fifty. The fact that he had no specialist batsman to accompany him from the other end makes this knock even better.
Watch: Rishabh Pant shouts at Kuldeep Yadav in front of umpires; gets caught on mic
Paul Collingwood impressed by Jamie Smith; compares him to Adam Gilchrist
At the end of the third day at the Oval, Paul Collingwood praised Jamie Smith and called him an artist. During the media chat, Paul Collingwood also compared Smith’s skills to that of Adam Gilchrist.
“It’s a thrill when he (Jamie Smith) comes on. He’s certainly a performer. You think back to the days when Gilchrist came on to represent Australia. It takes the life out of you as an opponent when someone can do something like that. In his short Test career, he’s shown great skills,” said Paul Collingwood.
Adam Gilchrist was an aggressive batsman who used to take on opposition bowlers with his attacking style. Jamie Smith has had a fantastic start to his Test career.
The 24-year-old has scored 404 runs in five Tests so far at an average of 50.50 and a strike rate of 70 with 110 and 2 fifties.
Despite failing to score much in England’s first innings, Jamie Smith made sure he played a significant knock in the second innings.
He top-scored for England in the second innings, powering the hosts to 156 runs and setting a target of 219 runs for the visitors.
Sri Lanka takes the lead in the match
The target is not huge, but if it had not been for Smith’s innings, England would have struggled in this Test match.
Chasing 219 to win, Sri Lanka started positively as Pathum Nissanka took on England’s new ball bowlers Chris Woakes and Gus Atinkson.
Debutant Josh Hull came in as the first change but also scored plenty of runs. Sri Lanka were 94-1 after 15 overs with Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Mendis at the crease. Nissanka was unbeaten on 53 off just 44 balls while Mendis was batting on 30 off 25 balls.
Sri Lankan batsmen are likely to play positive cricket on Day 4 as well. They need 125 runs to win the match with 9 wickets in hand and they have the upper hand. The visitors will try to achieve the target as soon as possible.
