2017 ICC Champions Trophy: Would Have Preferred To Being In New Zealand’s Position – Steven Smith
Nov 2, 2023 at 3:49 PM
In the last edition of the ICC Champions Trophy, the group game between Australia and New Zealand was washed out, much to the frustration of the Australian team which had a slight advantage over their Trans-Tasman rivals.
Fast forward four years, the fixture between the two nations and in the same tournament suffered the same fate but this time the Black Caps had the upper hand.
On Friday (June 2), the Kane Williamson-led side had Australia in all kinds of troubles after posting an imposing target of 291 in rain-curtailed innings. The rain returned after New Zealand innings too but fortunately, it stopped after a while and Australia were given a revised target of 235 runs in 33 overs.
And in no time, the World champions found them all over the place. Both of their openers were back in the hut with only 35 runs on the board and 18 runs later, they found themselves in further trouble when Moises Henriques departed too. But then the rain once again arrived and this time it resulted in the abandonment of the game.
Speaking after the game, Australia skipper Steven Smith said that his side was still capable of chasing down the total but at the same time he said that he would have liked to be in New Zealand’s position. He also admitted that his side was fortunate to get away with the match.
“We obviously still had some batters in the shed that can certainly play when you need to be chasing a total like that. But probably certainly would have preferred to being in New Zealand’s position when we came off the end there. We still had a lot of work to do and they’ve got a quality bowling attack as well. So we perhaps got away with one there,” Smith said.
Smith further slammed his bowlers for their pathetic performance. The Aussie pace quartet of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Patrick Cummins and John Hastings were hammered for 114 runs in the first 15 overs of the match and at 254 for three after the 39th over, the Black Caps were looking destined for a huge total.
However, the Australian bowlers led by Josh Hazlewood’s six-wicket haul made a late comeback and took the last seven wickets for only 37 runs but it was not enough to please their captain.
“I thought it was probably one of the worst bowling displays that we’ve put on for a very long time. We bowled both sides of the wicket. We gave them a lot of freebies. And it was pretty ordinary, to be honest with you,” ranted Smith.
Mitchell Starc, who was playing his first match since he injured his foot in India in early March, had a rare off day with the ball, going wicketless for 52 runs in nine overs and Smith hoped that it was just a ‘rusty’ performance from his pace spearhead.
Smith also had a word of praise for his New Zealand counterpart Kane Williamson who played an entertaining innings of 100 runs.
“Let’s hope it’s rust and let’s hope it’s gone. Because that was, as I said, it was pretty ordinary. And credit to them (New Zealand), they came out quite hard and played quite well up top and got their innings going. And Kane (Williamson) timed his innings beautifully, played really well throughout the middle. But, yes, we did not bowl well at all. So that’s something we need to look at and improve on for the next game,” Smith said.
“He’s (Mitchell Starc) a seasoned campaigner and now he’s played a lot of cricket. He’s one of the best bowlers in the world. So you’ve got to back those guys and he’s worked incredibly hard the last couple of weeks to get himself in a position where he could play. And he’s been putting the ball in (the right place) in the nets. Let’s hope today was a bit of rust and we can let it go and keep moving forward,” he added.
Smith also admitted that the washout was not ideal for either of the sides. With just one defeat enough to seal the fate of the team in the tournament, Smith said his team would treat the next two games, as finals.
“Yes, it’s obviously not ideal for both sides to have a washout. So for us now it’s just about making sure that we’re playing each game like a final and winning the next two. It’s a pretty quick tournament. So you can’t really afford too many, well, a washout, really, or a loss. So you’ve got to turn it around quickly now and control what you can control,” Smith said.
Australia’s next game is against Bangladesh on Monday (June 5).