The Honours Board

NEWS / The Honours Board

Lord’s, 17 August 2019. Jofra Archer had already hit Steve Smith on the forearm. The next short one did not get up. It hit him on the neck, behind the left ear, the neighbourhood of Phillip Hughes. Smith went down. Jos Buttler reached him first. Archer turned away and rubbed the dirt. For a few seconds 28,000 people made no noise.

Steven Smith. Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). The Lord’s blow was 17 August 2019. He came back the same afternoon.

The doctor took him off. About forty minutes later he walked out again. Justin Langer told reporters Smith had said he could not get on the honours board unless he was out there batting. He was 80 not out when he went down. He wanted the hundred on that wall. He lasted nine more balls, played no shot at Chris Woakes, lbw 92. He left the bat lying in the middle of the ground when he first went off. The board at Lord’s does not list 92.

The Pavilion, Lord’s. Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). The honours board is in there. Smith did not reach it that afternoon.

Steve Smith: ‘I wanted to keep going’ after Archer at Lord’s, 2019. If the player does not load, open it on YouTube.

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Overnight the concussion arrived late. He missed Headingley. Stokes made 135 not out and England won by one wicket without him. Smith came back at Old Trafford and made a double hundred. He is No. 3 in the Test batting list now. The fidgets are still there. The sentence about the board is still the one that explains why he stood up.