Between 12.24pm and 12.25pm, cameras panned to Smithโs wife Dani accordingly, sitting in the same stand her husband was gesticulating in the direction of.
Having seen off the early threats of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj, Smithโs uncharacteristic lapse sees him join one of Test cricketโs most exclusive clubs โ a quartet of batting greats (Brian Lara, Mahela Jayawardene and Alastair Cook) to have been dismissed in the nervous 9990s.
Brian Lara, the only man to fall in the nervous 9990s twice.Credit: AP
And wouldnโt you know it, at almost the same time 24 hours later, Smith wavered once more. One run, one measly, minor little run, shy of 10,000 for his career.
The nerves may well have been all too real as India refused to go away, Smith the third wicket to fall in their pursuit of a series winning and generation-defining target of 162. It certainly looked that way as Smith survived a narrow LBW shout from Krishna, before fending a difficult delivery to Yashasvi Jaiswal at gully.
A batting nerd of the highest order, Smith will take little comfort from joining Jayawardene in being dismissed with 9999 runs to his name. Or sitting alongside Lara in managing to fall twice in the 9990s, just months after plundering his world record 400 not out against England in 2004.
The West Indies maestro limped across the five-figure line at Manchester in the return series, hitting his 10,000th Test run after a first-innings duck thanks to Andrew Flintoff. Lara made it to seven and his milestone in the second dig before Flintoff nabbed him again.
Just as rare as Smithโs lapse in concentration was his falling short of the roundest of numbers.
Of the nine times Smith has passed a thousand-run mark in Tests, six times heโs done it with a century. Each of his 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000 and 5000-run milestones were marked with a triple-figure score.
The last of those 1000-run blocks, when Smith moved from 5000 to 6000, was him at his absolute peak, scoring those runs at a Bradmanesque average of 90 between March 2017 and January 2018.
Unsurprisingly, Smithโs first 1000 runs and the most recent four-figure block have been the toughest of his career. Questions over his form and possible retirement date in Test cricket abounded before back-to-back hundreds this summer.
Smithโs march from 9000 runs โ passed at Lordโs during last yearโs Ashes โ to 9999 have come at an average of 37.03.
Not since starting out as a leg spinning No.8 more than a decade ago has Smith averaged less than 40 over a 1000-run period.
He will be the 13th member, and fourth Australian, of Test cricketโs 10,000-run club soon enough, with Australiaโs next Test outing against Sri Lanka in Galle starting at the end of the month.
Which actually makes the tale of Smithโs twin dismissals in the nervous 9990s all the more memorable.
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