Cricket-Smith’s absence a pain in the neck for Australia’s reshuffled top six batting

FILE PHOTO: Cricket - The Ashes - Australia v England - Fifth Test - Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney, Australia - January 5, 2026 Australia's Steve Smith reacts REUTERS/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/File Photo

CAPE TOWN, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Fast ⁠bowlerMitchell Starc did not know Australia’s premier batsman Steve Smith would not take part in the ⁠decisive third test against South Africa at Newlands on Tuesday until he went to warm-up ‌ahead of play.

Smith tested his neck injury in the nets on Tuesday morning but was still experiencing discomfort, captain Pat Cummins said at the toss.

"He wasn't happy with how his neck was feeling, so we had to look elsewhere," Cummins said.

Smith's absence meant he would ​not feature at the ground where he was embroiled in the 2018 ⁠ball-tampering 'Sandpapergate' scandal, with much of the pre-match ⁠focus centred on how Australia's most experienced batsman would cope with the occasion.

"I did not know he was ⁠not ‌playing until I went out to warm-up today," Starc told reporters after the day’s play. “He has been battling that neck since last week.

“I don’t actually know what happened with that and I have not ⁠asked. He seems upbeat enough, but I don’t know what he has ​had done.”

After winning the toss, ‌Cummins opted to bowl, a rare decision at Newlands that might have been taken with the ⁠reshuffle of the top ​six batsmen after Josh Inglis learnt just before the start he would replace Smith.

The move initially appeared to have backfired as South Africa made a strong start. However, Starc produced a masterful spell with the second new ball late in the ⁠day, finishing with figures of 6-72 as the hosts were dismissed ​for 329 on the stroke of stumps.

“I am not in that pay bracket,” Starc said when asked if he agreed with the decision to bowl first. “My opinion doesn’t matter. It is what it is. At one point it ⁠looked like we were bowling a fair bit tomorrow, so it was good to bowl them out today.

“There was clearly not as much swing and sideways movement as we thought might be on offer (early in the day). But we found different ways to be effective and if you delete that first session, I think the last two ​were back on what we expected.”

It was anothersee-saw day in a series ⁠that has already seen plenty of twists and turns.

“These are two very good cricket teams. At times it is going ​to get away from you, at times you will wrestle the ‌momentum back, which we did in the second half ​the day,” Starc said.

“I expect more swings through the test match as we now need to go and bat and they have a very good (bowling) attack.”

(Reporting by Nick Said, editing by Pritha Sarkar)

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资料照片：板球——灰烬杯——澳大利亚对阵英格兰——第五场测试赛——悉尼板球场，悉尼，澳大利亚——2026年1月5日，澳大利亚球员史蒂夫·史密斯做出反应。路透社/阿桑卡·布伦登·拉特纳亚克/资料照片

开普敦，10 月 27 日（路透社）——澳大利亚快速投球手米切尔·斯塔克直到周二在纽兰兹球场进行赛前热身时才知道，澳大利亚顶级击球手史蒂夫·史密斯将不会参加这场决定性的第三场对阵南非的测试赛。

队长帕特·康明斯在掷硬币时表示，史密斯周二上午在网球场上测试了他的颈部伤势，但仍然感到不适。

“他感觉脖子很不舒服，所以我们不得不另寻他法，”卡明斯说。

史密斯的缺席意味着他将不会出现在他曾卷入 2018 年“砂纸门”篡改球丑闻的场地，赛前的大部分关注点都集中在澳大利亚最有经验的击球手将如何应对这场比赛上。

“直到今天我出去热身的时候，我才知道他不会上场，”斯塔克在赛后告诉记者。“他从上周开始就一直受颈伤困扰。”

“我其实不知道那件事到底发生了什么，我也没问过。他看起来精神还不错，但我不知道他做了什么。”

赢得掷硬币后，卡明斯选择先发球，这在纽兰兹球场是一个罕见的决定，可能是因为在比赛开始前，乔什·英格利斯得知他将取代史密斯，导致前六名击球手重新调整阵容。

这一策略起初似乎适得其反，南非队开局强势。然而，斯塔克在当天比赛尾声阶段用第二颗新球打出了精彩绝伦的投球，最终以6-72的成绩结束比赛，东道主南非队在比赛结束前被淘汰出局，总得分仅为329分。

当被问及是否同意先发球的决定时，斯塔克说：“我的收入不在这个级别。我的意见并不重要，事情就是这样。一度看起来我们明天要打很多场球，所以今天把他们全部淘汰出局是件好事。”

“很明显，（当天早些时候）摆动和横向移动的幅度没有我们预想的那么多。但我们找到了其他有效的方法，如果排除第一节课的情况，我认为后两节课的效果就符合我们的预期了。”

对于已经经历了诸多曲折的剧情而言，这又是跌宕起伏的一天。

“这两支板球队实力都很强。有时候比赛会失控，有时候你会重新夺回主动权，就像我们在下半场做到的那样，”斯塔克说道。

“我预计这场测试赛会有更多波折，因为我们现在需要上场击球，而他们的（投球）攻击力非常强。”

（Nick Said报道，Pritha Sarkar编辑）

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