Steven Smith admitted he thought he had edged a ball against Ebadot Hossain during the opening session in the first day in Darwin when the DRS then showed a flat line and he survived to make Australia‘s only substantial score of 71.

In the 21st over, shortly before lunch, Smith pushed at the Ebadot delivery and Bangladesh celebrated straightaway only for Kumar Dharmasena to shake his head. Najmul Hossain Shanto called the review and Smith was starting to walk off the field only for there to be no spike on the replay.

“I think so, yeah,” he said when asked if he had nicked the ball. “I was lucky? Yeah, it seems that way. You got to take it sometimes.”

Last season’s Ashes series featured frequent controversies around the Real-Time Snicko technology used in Australia as part of the DRS package although those stemmed more from images and audio spikes not lining up rather than a flat line as in the Smith scenario.

“Normally, it’s [the technology] pretty good,” Smith said. “Maybe I didn’t nick it. I don’t know. But I certainly felt something. If I’d been given out, I was going to walk off. But yeah, technology saved me today, I guess.”

It continued a charmed start to Smith’s innings – “I actually forgot how to hold the bat for my first 30 balls. I’m not going to lie,” he told Fox Cricket – after he had been given a life on 2 when dropped, low down, at third slip by Tanzid Hasan.

However, Smith settled into his work and was the only Australia batter to impress as the home side folded for 198. He eventually became Hasan Mahmud‘s fifth wicket when he carved high into the air trying to score with Nathan Lyon for company.

Bangladesh remains the only Test nation of the ones Smith has played against where he has yet to register a century, albeit this is just the third time he has faced them.