Australian skipper Steven Smith shared his disappointment over his side’s horrible collapse against South Africa in the second test at Hobart. Trailing by 251 runs in the second innings, Australia succumbed to an inning defeat after the duo of Kagiso Rabada and Kyle Abbott bowled through the heart of the Aussie batting line-up on Day 4.
The Australian batting mainstay wasn’t impressed with his side’s performance as the host lost eight wickets for just 30 runs in the second innings. Talking about the humiliating loss, Smith said he felt embarrassed sitting at the conference.
“I am embarrassed to be sitting here to be perfectly honest with you. Too many times we have lost wickets in clumps, 8 for 30 today, 10 for 85 in the first innings, and you are not winning any games of cricket when are you doing that. And it is happening way too consistently for my liking.
“We are not being resilient, we are not willing to tough it out and get through tough periods and the longer you spend out there things get easier, albeit the wicket was doing quite a bit and it was hard. But, the boys have got to start being a bit tougher and getting in a grind and getting in a contest and try to build a few partnerships because right now it is not good enough”
When asked about the future of the coach Darren Lehmann, Smith backed the former all-rounder by saying he’s (Lehmann) done everything he could and the onus should be shifted on players rather than him.
“I think he’s been terrific over a long period of time. It’s not his fault we’re not playing well, it’s up to us to go out there and do the job. He does everything he can for us in training and preparation.
“We prepare well, it’s just at the moment when we get out in the middle we’re not executing our skills well enough and not handling the pressures of international cricket well enough. As a playing group that has to change, and from my point of view I have absolutely no problem with anything Darren is doing at the moment.”
Smith, who scored 79 runs in the Hobart Test, also took a dig at his batters saying that their lack of ability to adapt to the changing conditions is actually costing them.
“I think that depends on conditions, if the wickets are flat and there is nothing happening fine you can play aggressively and positively. But if there is anything in the wicket: spin, swing, seam, at the moment we are not adapting well enough, we are not willing to grind it out and spend enough time out in the middle to be positive.
“It comes down to that resilience and having a good defence, at the moment our defence is being challenged and it hasn’t been good enough. You can play that positive brand once you get in and things get easier, but we have got to be willing to do the hard yards to be in a position where we can be positive and drive the game.”
When asked about the need of right players for the right spot in the squad, Smith said he is looking forward for someone from the domestic structure to jump out with some good consistent run under his sleeves.
“There’s some guys there that are scoring some big runs on occasions and then probably not being as consistent as they would like to put their names up there. That’s what I mean when I say no one is really jumping out of the pack and getting big hundreds or three hundreds in a row.
“At the moment what we’ve got going on is not working so it might be about getting some younger guys in and getting some experience at this level, you never know, guys might really step up to the plate and step up to the level of international cricket.”
South Africa now have unassailable 2-0 lead in the series and the third test match will take place at Adelaide from November 24.