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Former Australian skipper Steve Smith has dismissed the notion that team India gets an advantage by playing at the same venue in the Champions Trophy. Steve Smith supported the Indian team in the debate of the same venue row after getting defeated in the semifinal. India defeated Australia by 6 wickets while chasing the target of 265 runs in the Champions Trophy semifinal.
Steve Smith has announced his ODI retirement after the semifinal defeat against India in the ongoing Champions Trophy. Since the tournament started, some ex-cricketers and fans of other competitive teams have been talking about the single venue advantage for Team India. There has not been a single press conference in which questions about India playing at a single venue have not been asked.
Rohit and Gambhir also react to the criticism
Indian skipper Rohit Sharma responded to these questions at the toss time in the India vs Australia match. Even Indian team head coach Gautam Gambhir also dismissed the possibility of India getting an advantage. Now Steve Smith also didn’t buy the claims that India had an advantage of playing all its matches at one venue. Though he praised the men in blue for completely outplaying them in the match.
“Yeah, look, I’m not buying into it. I think it is what it is. India obviously played some really good cricket here. The surface kind of suits their style with the spinners that they’ve got and the seamers that they have at their disposal for a wicket like that. They played well, they outplayed us, and they deserve the victory,” Smith said in the post-match press conference on Tuesday night.
Steve Smith also said that they were aiming for a target of 300, but it was a continuous fall of wickets; due to this, they failed to manage partnerships in regular interviews. Indian bowlers restricted them in their outstanding bowling. Smith said if they had managed to do 290-300 runs, then it would have been a winning total.
“Yeah, I think the toss was the right decision. I think we had our opportunities throughout to post something above 300. We were probably just that one wicket down, too many at a few stages throughout the innings. If we extended one of those partnerships a little bit, we’re probably getting up 290-300, and we’re putting a bit of pressure on the scoreboard,” he said.
Steve Smith on the pitch where semifinal held
“So, it’s clearly not the easiest wicket to bat on. The square block as a whole I think has seen a lot of cricket over the last couple of months. We can see it’s pretty tired and that’s probably the reason why we haven’t seen a score above 300 in the tournament here so far. So we did a reasonable job, but we probably just lacked a couple of those partnerships just dragging out a little bit further to get us up somewhere near 300 or just above,” he added.
Steve also pointed out their dropped catches, which give the chances to batsmen like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. Australia gave two chances to Indian skipper Rohit Sharma in the powerplay. Glen Maxwell had a chance to depart Virat Kohli in the 26th over, but he dropped the chance, and Kohli went on to add 31 more runs to his match-winning innings.
(With Inputs from ANI)
Also Read: Champions Trophy 2025: Rohit Sharma Addresses ‘Dubai Advantage’ Accusations For Team India
