Steve Smith continued his spectacular form in the Ashes series, with a double century on the second day of the fourth Test at Manchester, to put Australia in a commanding position.
The visitors declared at 497/8, with a little over half-an-hour left in the day's play. Once Smith departed for a well-made 211, Mitchell Starc (54*) and Nathan Lyon (26*) threw their bats around to put on an unbeaten 59-run partnership to take Australia close to 500 runs.
Smith had made 144 and 142 in Australia's 251-run win in the opener at Edgbaston—his first Test since completing a 12-month ball-tampering ban. His lowest score of the current campaign was the 92 he posted at Lord's after being felled by a Jofra Archer bouncer. He had missed the third Test as a result, which England won by a wicket.
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In fact, Smith was finally dismissed for 211 because of his own doing, trying to reverse-sweep Joe Root to be caught at backward point by Joe Denly. The former skipper put on 145 runs for the sixth wicket with Tim Paine (58).
It was Smith third double century. This was also the eighth time he had passed 150 in a Test and the third instance against England, although he was reprieved twice on Thursday.
But it might have been a different story had fast bowler Jofra Archer held on to a Smith caught-and-bowled chance when the world's number one-ranked Test batsman on 65.
Smith was given another reprieve on 118 when he edged Jack Leach to Ben Stokes at slip only for replays to reveal the left-arm spinner had over-stepped for a no-ball.
Despite England's dramatic one-wicket win in the third Test at Headingley in Smith's absence to square the five-match series at 1-1, the top-order problems that saw them dismissed for just 67 in the first innings in Leeds remain intact.
(With PTI inputs)
