IND vs AUS 2017, 5th ODI: We Weren’t Good Enough and Were Outplayed by India – Steven Smith

Oct 2, 2017 at 11:00 AM

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IND vs AUS 2017, 5th ODI: We Weren’t Good Enough and Were Outplayed by India – Steven Smith

So the win and the batting performance from Australia in the fourth One-Day International in Bengaluru was merely a fluke, or many would assume it like after the visitors came up with yet another poor batting show in the fifth and final game on Sunday (October 1).

For the third game in a row, the world champions were off to a good start with Aaron Finch and David Warner adding 66 runs for the first wicket. However, once Hardik Pandya broke the partnership by dismissing Finch, the visitors soon found themselves four down with only 118 runs on the board. An 87-run stand between Marcus Stoinis and Travis Head then controlled the damage to a certain extent but losing wickets at regular intervals never allowed them to get the much-needed impetus as they got restricted to 242 for nine.

The score was never going to pose a tough challenge to the formidable Indian batting lineup, as they chased down the total inside 43 overs by losing just three wickets.

Speaking after the game, a dejected Steven Smith said his side failed to put up a strong show despite showing promises throughout the five-match series.

“We showed some glimpses throughout the series that we could play, but we’ve been losing wickets in clumps very consistently, and that’s not good enough,” said Smith after the loss. “The top four need to stand up and really take control. We did that in a couple of games, last game in Bangalore to be particular. But we are not doing it consistently enough. We are not giving ourselves the chance to really go hard at the back end of the game and getting partnerships in the middle, something we need to look at.”

Talking about the final match, Smith admitted the visitors did not have enough runs on the board before praising Rohit Sharma who scored 125.

Rohit Sharma of India celebrates his Hundred runs with Virat Kohli captain of India during the 5th One Day International match (ODI) between India and Australia held at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur on the 1st October 2017
Photo by Deepak Malik / BCCI / SPORTZPICS

“I don’t think we had enough runs. We needed to take wickets and obviously was trying with different people to try and get a breakthrough and put some pressure. I thought Rohit played very well and timed his innings to perfection. It was disappointing… The new ball is probably the best time to bat, and the wicket slowed up. and I felt the ball got pretty old pretty quickly. Our plan was to try and hopefully get a few early wickets to try and contain the runs as much as possible with the spinners going to get a bit of help with the ball going softer and reversing and probably spinning a bit more too… But, yeah, we weren’t good enough and were outplayed by India.”

Smith further rued the lack of application from his teammates against the spinners.

Axar Patel took three wickets in the final ODI against Australia in Nagpur. Image Courtesy: BCCI

“We had a chat after our second game. It was about playing the spinners and hitting the ball down the ground,” said Smith. “I thought we did that in a couple of games… and then today Virat set some really good fields and stopped us from hitting and I don’t think we adapted well enough. Today was probably a day when we could have used softer hands, played a bit square and hit the ball into the gaps instead of actually hitting the ball down the ground. We probably didn’t adapt as well as we would have liked to,” he added.

Smith, who was the highest run-scorer during the Test series in India earlier this year, could not lead the team from the front this time around. The Australia skipper could manage two fifties, but two single-digit scores and 16 did not help his side’s cause.

“I wasn’t feeling great at the start of the series, but I’m feeling okay now. I had a few issues that I was working on, but I guess I slowly found out a nice tempo which I’m after. I would have loved to score a lot more of runs. Having not been able to get those runs as I have been in the past few occasions… from that aspect, as a leader of the team, has been disappointing. But I guess that’s cricket. You have those periods when you’re not playing or getting the scores that you like… Something that hopefully I can turn around and contribute in the T20Is,” he said.

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