Ashes 2019: Steve Smith hits a bizarre cover-drive to reach his fifty

Steve Smith continues to haunt England in the ongoing Ashes series. Not many had backed him to hit the ground running when he was named in Australia’s squad for the ongoing fourth Test. Smith was returning to action after recovering from the blow he copped on his neck from a Jofra Archer bouncer in the second Test.

In fact, there were apprehensions that Smith would never be the same batsman again after that blow. However, it did not take long for the former Australia skipper to dissipate those apprehensions as he toyed with England attack once again. The right-handed batsman has been in stunning form in the series.

He started the series with knocks of 144 and 142 in Edgbaston. In the second Test, he was out for 93 before missing the remainder of the game and the third Test due to concussion. But the absence did not hurt his form at all as he scored yet another fifty against the Ashes rivals. At the end of the day, Smith was unbeaten on 60.

And as usual, his quirky and unorthodox shots were once again the highlight of his knock. Smith is arguably the most unorthodox batsman in Test cricket at the moment and he displayed it once again on Wednesday. The star batsman played a range of unusual shots to frustrate the England bowlers. But the pick of the lot was the cover-drive or whatever you can call it he played to reach his fifty.

Facing Ben Stokes in the 39th over, Smith came up with a hilarious shot to reach his fifty. He had to reach out for the ball and in doing so he nearly threw himself off-balanced. But despite that, he somehow managed to send the ball to the boundary.

Here is a clip of that shot from Steve Smith: 

5⃣0⃣ The Steve Smith way.. @stevesmith49#Ashes #TheAshes pic.twitter.com/hGqEK6eQOP

— Debraj (@Deb_rajBanerjee) September 4, 2019

Australia in command:

Riding on the fifties from Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne, Australia grabbed the honors on the opening day of the fourth Test.  Australia had been reduced to 28/2 after winning the toss before Smith and Labuschagne added 116 runs. The partnership ended when Labuschagne was dismissed for 67. At the end of the day, Australia were 170 for 3.