A leg-side dig off Milan Rathnayake did it, a guaranteed one turned into a comfortable two, the question now of how the batter would celebrate this moment. Jamie Smith had become a Test centurion.
But there was no David Warner-esque skip-and-jump, no sign of theatricality under the Manchester sun’s guest appearance. Only a simple nod to tradition: the helmet off and the bat raised for his teammates and crowd, a smile reserved for his batting colleague, Gus Atkinson. The lid was off for less than 20 seconds before he returned to his wide-crouching stance, ready for the next ball.
The lack of celebration perhaps hinted at an acknowledgement from Smith, that this day had been coming. A first Test century is often described as a “dream come true”. For some, that cliched refrain sounds more appropriate, the hundred unlikely until it actually happened, this the high point of a career that probably won’t produce another. For others, blessed with the right gifts and circumstances, the dream is real from early on, that first hundred the start. David Gower once called his own, strummed at the age of 21 against New Zealand, “a stepping-stone”. Smith joins this group.
He came through a Surrey system that increasingly resembles an England pathway programme; see Atkinson and Ollie Pope for more. A cricket scholarship at the fee-paying Whitgift School, which counts Jason Roy and Rory Burns as former students, will not have hurt.
Then there’s the talent that has long been evident and discussed at length, trumpeted in the game’s circles when he was starting out in the county first team. Mark Butcher remembers a phone call from Ian Chappell years ago, the former Australia captain impressed by Smith’s work in grade cricket.
A first-class debut in 2019 produced a century and a 266-run stand with Pope, and momentum began to gather with three County Championship hundreds in 2021. An 82-ball 126 for the Lions against Sri Lanka A in Galle last year helped set up a Test debut at Lord’s. Cue the inevitable half-century. So when Smith perished for 95 against West Indies at Edgbaston last month, bowled by a low one from Shamar Joseph, it didn’t feel as if his world had come undone. The landmark would come soon enough.
Resuming unbeaten on 72 from Thursday, Smith looked as if he’d slept better than the opposition. Sri Lanka appeared off it from the first ball, a misfield gifting Smith a single through mid-on. Asitha Fernando, so impressive the previous day, making the ball sway and jig, had his first over bookended by two delicious boundary drives, one through long-off, the other through and extra cover.
Smith slowed up but didn’t struggle in the nineties, with 19 balls required to get through it, no visible fears of having to wait another day for three figures. History came with the moment. Smith, 24 years and 42 days old, became the youngest gloveman to hit a Test century for England.
It’s hard to find any faults at present. Smith has kept wicket calmly across four Tests. He has the runs Jonny Bairstow was searching for, first at seven, now at six. He has a strike rate Ben Foakes was never going to reach. Of course it gets tougher from here, the strain of having to do it against the white ball next as England get him in there as soon as possible. Despite the poker face, Smith has already talked about how mentally draining Test cricket can be. But brighter days will inevitably follow, as they always have.
