Smith sends himself into a spin

In the weeks, even the months leading into this opening Test against Sri Lanka, Steve Smith has punished himself against spin bowling in the practice nets.

Not just in the exhaustive volume of overs he faced from members of his own team, the lads from Australia's National Performance Squad drafted in as practice partners, the consultant slow bowling coaches and the spinners among the local net bowlers who trundle away through session after sweaty session.

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But also in the regular tirades of admonishment he unleashes against himself when his technique or his temperament is found wanting against the sort of bowling that makes and breaks results and reputations on the subcontinent.

The play and miss against left-arm spinner Ashton Agar in the lead-up to Australia's failed World T20 fixture against New Zealand in Mohali earlier this year that saw him aim a curse at nobody in particular about "%#@& spin".

The same outcome months later in Colombo when netting against former India ODI allrounder Sridharan 'Sri' Sriram, employed as a coaching assistant for the current Qantas Tour of Sri Lanka, which saw him give the ball a hefty helping hand via his bat on its way back to the bowler.

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And when training at that Colombo venue shifted to a centre wicket that sported a grass cover the equal of which won't be seen anywhere in Sri Lanka for the remainder of this campaign, he became even more demonstrably demanding.

Taking to the stumps with his bat after misreading the final delivery of his prescribed practice stint at the crease, and muttering furiously as he stalked back to the cool of the dressing room.

It's therefore safe to assume the temperature in his team's sanctuary at Pallekele Stadium might have bumped up a degree or two in the immediate aftermath of his dismissal on the second morning of this intriguingly poised first Test against Sri Lanka.

Because not only was today's submission of far greater consequence than a raft of rehearsals, it was a misjudgement so glaring and so clearly at odds with the message the captain had been preaching pre-Test that he was likely to have been as much in shock as he was in a strop by the time he reached the sheds.

Watching from his television commentary post 100 metres or so from the incident, Australia's most-capped Test captain Allan Border described it as a "brain explosion", a "wild hack" and "a number eleven's slog" which, given the game situation and the execution, would seem defendable as fair comment.

But Adam Voges, who passed Smith in silence as the pair made their respective treks to and from the centre in the immediate aftermath, claimed that while it may have appeared at odds with the call for patience and mental discipline that Smith and others in the batting group have oft repeated over past weeks, there was another ploy at play.

"We talk about taking risks early to try and spread the field and then getting ones (singles into the gaps)," Voges said after play, while also pointing out he was not in a position to answer definitively as to his captain's motives.

"He (Smith) tried to take that risk early – if it comes off, it looks great.

"It didn't come off today.

"If he hits that over the top then all of a sudden the field spreads a bit and then he can knock ones around.

"That's how he wanted to get into his innings."

Moments before that innings imploded on 30, the television coverage had been highlighting the willingness and success that Smith had shown in using sparkling footwork to the spinners.

It's one of the routines that he's been practicing against all manner of slow bowlers in the nets, recognising there's an important demarcation between being prepared to play a disciplined waiting game and getting bogged down and strangled.

He had performed it with aplomb during the 46 deliveries he faced on Tuesday evening, rattling along to a score (28) unsurpassed by anyone on the Test's opening day and clearly of the view that he could quite literally find his feet from ball one the next morning.

But Herath is a wily opponent, and would have devoted some time the previous evening and early the next day to plotting Smith's demise while not daring to imagine it would succeed at just his second attempt come the morning.

"He's canny – he changes his pace, he mixes it well," Voges said of the 38-year-old who, while deferring story-of-the-day status to Sri Lanka's debutant spinner Lakshan Sandakan, returned his team's best figures of 4-49.

"There hasn't been a great deal of spin there for him but he's been very economical and we all knew going into this series he would be their main threat.

"We can play him better than we did today and I'm sure we'll be looking to do that."

Certainly Smith, should he have an opportunity for a second hit in this match that is hurtling to a conclusion in between regular bouts of afternoon rain, will carry that as his mission statement out into the middle.

Having time and again drummed the dangers of spin into himself during the nets sessions he's able to snatch between now and then.