'Never seen that': Steve Smith blows up as ugly drought continues
Steve Smith was left fuming in bizarre scenes on the opening day of the third Test against Pakistan when he took issue with a rogue camera.
Smith and Usman Khawaja rescued the Aussies on day one in Lahore after the tourists lost David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne in the opening overs.
Australia slumped to 2-8 in the third over when Warner (seven) and Labuschagne (0) fell within the space of three balls to left-arm paceman Shaheen Afridi (2-40).
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Khawaja (91) and Smith (59) combined for a 138-run stand to turn the momentum back Australia's way, before Pakistan hit back late in the day to even up proceedings.
Australia finished the day at 5-232, with Cameron Green (20 not out) and Alex Carey (8no) aiming to build Australia's total when play resumes on Tuesday.
There were bizarre scenes early in Smith's innings when the Aussie vice-captain was distracted by a remote-controlled camera buggy roving around the boundary.
Smith pulled away at the last second while facing up, before yelling out to the camera operator.
"Stop the thing moving," he said after the buggy had moved as the bowler was running in.
Commentators were left perplexed that Smith had been distracted by something that was 100 metres away on the mid-wicket boundary.
“How he’s seen that I don’t know," said Rob Key.
"I mean, it’s on the boundary at deep mid-wicket and he’s not happy. It’s a good 100 yards away I’d say.
“Extraordinary.”
Co-commentator Urooj Mumtaz said: “I have never seen that before.
“One thing is for sure, Steve Smith has the best peripheral vision on the planet.”
Steve Smith's century drought continues
Smith also cut a frustrated figure when he was trapped lbw after his bat got caught in the flap of his back pad while attempting to play Naseem Shah to the leg side.
The strange dismissal continued an unwanted century drought for the star batsman, with his latest ton coming against India in January of 2021.
Since then he has batted 14 times in the Test arena and produced seven half-centuries, including scores of 93, 81, 78, and 72.
Despite the century drought, Khawaja feels it's just a matter of time before the star batsman reaches triple figures again.
"I'm sure he's frustrated in some respects," Khawaja said.
"He is, in my opinion, the greatest batsman I've seen in my era, averaging 60 pretty much his whole Test career.
"I'm still in awe in how many runs he's scored over a long period of time.
"I find it so funny we're talking about Steve Smith not scoring 100s, he seems to be getting 70, 80 ... and doing it very easily. That's just the class Steve Smith has.
"I'm sure once he gets a big score, more big scores (will come). The fact he's getting those 60s, 70s, he's looking really good with the bat."
Khawaja's latest knock took his series tally to 392 runs at an average of 130.66, but he revealed how he was struggling at the crease.
"I was a little bit sick. I got some medication from the doc in between breaks," he said.
"I wasn't feeling well at all. There were a lot of mind games in between.
"I just told myself, 'just keep going, go as long as you can, just keep pushing through'.
"And to push through for five hours - I felt absolutely horrible at the end of the day."
with AAP
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