It was not so much the delighted chants of “review... review...” from underneath the scoreboard where massed ranks of England fans jeered in full knowledge Smith had burned both his reviews as the ball thudded into Dawid Malan’s pads.

It was the accumulated evidence of four sessions of cricket which suggested in no uncertain terms that this Ashes will not be the stroll that some predicted after Brisbane, and that the England side ranged up against him will fight him every step of the way.

Whatever happens on the final day of what has been a lurching but compelling second Test – England started it 176-4, still 178 runs from victory – this was the moment England signalled their intent to roll up their sleeves and scrap.

They will need to as well with a run chase (of 354) ahead of them that was not only their biggest but the ground’s biggest, and would be among the top 10 in history.

Yet, perhaps as significantly for the series, it was the day Smith’s aura of confidence and superiority had been stripped away a touch too. And that for England is something to lock away in their memories to be revisited when situations get tense on the roads leading from Adelaide to Perth, Melbourne and Sydney.

One layer of that aura was removed when Smith failed to enforce the follow-on on Monday night with England 215 behind, a decision his own side have subsequently described as “a mistake”. Another was stripped away when England’s bowlers landed some blows on Monday evening.

Jimmy Anderson, who went on to register the first five-for of his career in Australia, and Chris Woakes, with four wickets, were superb as England blew away their hosts for 138.

In addition, if the Australia captain expected to do the same to England’s batsmen for a second time given a lamentable first-innings effort, the new day brought new steel – and Sheffield steel at that, in the form of Joe Root’s leadership with the bat.

Aside from Root there were gutsy contributions from Mark Stoneman (36) and Alastair Cook (16), who got the innings off to a half-century start without loss before the latter fell lbw.

More so Malan, whose 29 and gritty partnership with his captain added 78 and saw off all but 10 minutes of the twilight session under lights when Australia’s bowlers swarmed.

Smith, who had challenged his own lbw dismissal to Woakes on Monday night unsuccessfully, had a dismal and luckless day too, failing to review a decision against Cook early that would have yielded his wicket when England were 1-0, then spiralling into a DRS nightmare of his own making.

Root was given out lbw to Lyon on 32 only to overturn, and then Smith, perhaps with the Cook incident in mind, asked for reviews on two not-out decisions (on Root and Malan) in three balls when England were three down, both of which failed.

It meant Smith was left with no challenges for the remainder of the innings, something the ‘Barmies’ reminded him of every time a ball rapped a pad.

If that was not enough, he then dropped Malan on eight at slip off Lyon, a difficult but gettable grab.

Anderson, whose five-for was the 25th of his career, taking him just two away from Ian Botham’s high-water mark of 27, said England need to learn from both Brisbane and Adelaide however the series is poised in Perth.

“We just wanted to show that we have got good characters in our team to get ourselves back into games through fighting hard and playing well,” he said. “But we have shown we can compete with Australia and can cause them problems both with bat and ball.

“It is now a case of doing that for long periods of time. We can’t just do that for a day here and a day there in a Test match – that is not going to win you a series.

“We have at some point to realise we have to do it for five days, and if we can do that we can compete.”

The chalk and cheese of England’s first efforts with bat and ball have been stark in Adelaide, for all that the luck seemed to reverse for Root’s men between the first and second halves of this match. But the signs are that the beginnings of a unit capable of matching Australia this winter have formed.

“At some point we have to start learning from the positions we get ourselves in,” said Anderson.

“We were in strong positions in Brisbane and didn’t capitalise on them. Here we were way behind the game but we have shown that is not a fair reflection of where we are as a team and have come back.”

They have also successfully got into Smith’s head and reintroduced him to the concept of doubt, both with his batting and his captaincy. That could be as important as any scoreline in battles to come.