Tim Southee castles Steve Smith for a duck

New Zealand captain Tim Southee dismissed Australian lynchpin Steve Smith for a duck in the first over of the third innings of the first Test against Australia, giving the hosts a bit of respite after an arduous day.

Smith and Usman Khawaja walked out to bat after Australia had taken an imposing 204-run first-innings lead. Southee started with wide good-length balls against Smith, who wanted to get a feel of the ball early in his innings.

The pacer hurled the third one very wide and short and Smith went after it without much frontfoot movement and ended up flashing at the ball away from his body. The ace batter was in no control of the shot and the ball took an inside edge to ricochet into his middle stump, forcing him to leave the field with a three-ball duck to his name. It was Southee’s first wicket in the Test.