Adam Voges defends Steve Smith

Jul 28, 2016 at 1:38 PM

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Adam Voges defends Steve Smith

Veteran Australian Batsman Adam Voges has defended skipper Steve Smith’s bizarre dismissal in the first Test against Sri Lanka.

Having resumed the second day at 2-66 at the Pallekele Stadium, Smith took two runs from the first over bowled by seamer Nuwan Pradeep before facing up to his first ball from left-arm spinner Rangana Herath with Australia still trailing by 48 runs.

One of the best players of spin of his team, Smith decided to charge down the wicket at Herath. However, the right-handed batsman’s swing failed to make a connection with the ball as Sri Lanka wicketkeeper Dinesh Chandimal completed the easiest of stumpings.

The wicket derailed Australia’s innings as they kept on losing wickets at regular intervals. Replying to Sri Lanka’s first innings total of 117, Australia could take a lead of only 86 runs.

However, Voges, who was Australia’s top scorer with 47, said that attacking the bowlers early on was a part of the team’s plan.

“We talk about taking risks early to try and spread the field and then getting ones,” he said after rain washed out the final session on Wednesday (July 27). “He tried to take that risk early. If it comes off, it looks great.

“I think we felt one or two partnerships, or those couple of partnerships that did get going, making them bigger,”Voges added. “If we had done that, we probably have a 100-run plus lead and feeling like we are driving the game. (It was)a little bit of a missed opportunity today, but some good starts, but we know in these conditions we want to be getting bigger scores and bigger partnerships.”

Voges said the Sri Lankan spinners Herath and Lakshan Sandakan, the debutant left-arm wrist spinner, were tough to counter. Both the spinners wreaked havoc on the visitors and took four wickets apiece.

“It’s a tricky one (the pitch),” Voges said. “No one has really mastered it yet over these two days. It’s tough going. It’s hard to score on, particularly with in-outfields and your boundary options are quite limited.

“You know you are going to have to face a lot of balls but we expected that coming into this Test. It’s probably just the inconsistencies around the bounce and spin – some do, some don’t, some bounce a bit more than others, some keep a bit low. I kept my game plan pretty simple: play as straight as I could and bat for as long as I could.I just said to the guys to keep looking for his leg-spinner and then you will hopefully notice there is something that is a little bit different,which was what I was trying to do,” he said.

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