Root's illegal act of Smith trickery exposed

Commentators have called out Joe Root after he tried to deceive Steve Smith with a sneaky move that's been outlawed.

This Ashes series remains a tale of two captains, with Root's daydreaming and Smith's dominance helping Australia steady themselves on day two of the third Test.

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England posted a first-innings total of 403 at the WACA. But a record-breaking partnership of 237 runs between centurions Dawid Malan and Jonny Bairstow was followed by a collapse of 6-35.

Australia were 3-203 in response at stumps, trailing by 200 runs, with Smith once again showing his incredible skill with the bat.

Root has looked helpless at times in his plans to try and dismiss Smith, so he resorted to a cheeky piece of trickery as Smith edged towards another century on Friday.

After Smith played the ball down to fine leg for a single, Root pretended to receive the throw at the non-striker's end in an attempt to fool Smith into thinking he was in danger of being run out.

Smith wasn't fooled - or even flustered by the move - but as Ian Healy pointed out, Root's actions are actually illegal.

The ICC recently outlawed any attempt to “intentionally deceiving or distracting a batsman”, with a five-run penalty the punishment.

“There is some fake fielding at the non-striker’s end,” Healy said.

“There is a new rule, isn’t there? There is a new rule that if you claim that you are fielding something but you are not, you can be penalised five runs.

“Moeen Ali throws this in, you watch Joe Root at the non-striker’s end.

“Steve Smith gets down there and, yes, there is five runs.”

While Root escaped punishment on this occasion, Healy joked that England got off lucky.

“I think if Steve Smith got fooled by that he should get five runs off his total,” Healy said.

Queensland player Marnus Labuschagne become the first cricketer penalised under the new 'fake fielding' rule in September.

Labuschagne was fielding in the JLT Cup when dived and missed the ball, before popping up onto his knees and pretending to throw the ball at the stumps.

with AAP