Steve Smith won’t take West Indies lightly
Dec 31, 2018 at 1:57 PM
The Aussies got back in shape after a commanding win over South Africa at St. Kitts last evening. The Australians seemed to be down and out of the game till South African skipper AB De Villiers was out in the middle. However, once De Villiers was cleaned up by Josh Hazlewood, the Proteas panicked and made an absolute mess of the run chase. Chasing 289 to win, they were bowled out for 252 with 14 balls to spare.
Post his side’s victory, Australian captain Steve Smith was a relieved man. Not long ago, the Australians had messed up a small chase against the same opposition in Guyana. The victory last evening would be a perfect remedy for that memory. After winning, Smith admitted that the Australians’ won’t take the West Indies lightly in their next game.
“I thought 290 was a very good total. It slowed up a fair bit, and was hard to score in the back end of the innings. It’s always hard to start against a ball that is reversing when you are up against Starc and Hazlewood. Zampa was good. I put him under pressure a little by bowling him in the end. Starc was good, bowled pretty quick actually to begin with. He’s working back into it nicely and hopefully can continue to do so,” said Smith.
“I thought Davey played superbly, he’s in terrific form. That partnership with Khawaja set us up. It was nice to contribute tonight. West Indies will be coming at us hard, since they haven’t beaten us, and hopefully we’ll be good enough,” Smith further added.
South African skipper AB De Villiers admitted that his side would have to sort out a few issues. “We do have some work to do. Australia batted well and put us under pressure led by Warner. We threw away a few runs in the field. But it was a chaseable total and the wicket played well throughout the game. No excuses really. All the bowlers bowled well. But we gave away a few runs in the field. It’s the batters who let us down. Lots of dismissals were soft dismissals, something we need to fix for the next game.”