Australia’s captain Steve Smith hugs India’s Virat Kohli after India won against Australia during the ICC Champions Trophy semifinal cricket match at Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Tuesday, March 4, 2025. (AP Photo)
Did the Indian cricket team have an unfair advantage at the ongoing Champions Trophy? The are after all the only team to play all their games at the same venue in Dubai while the rest of the countries had to play theirs at multiple venues in Pakistan besides a game in Dubai against India? Australian stand-in skipper Steve Smith does not think so, disagreeing with some pundits and players who have voiced their concerns about the hybrid model.
After Smith’s team lost to India by four wickets in the semi-finals on Tuesday at the Dubai International Stadium, the stand-in skipper conceded that they had been “outplayed” by a superior team.
“I’m not buying into it (India’s familiarity with pitch and condition). India obviously played some really good cricket here. The surface kind of suits their style with the spinners that they’ve got,” Smith said during the post-match press conference on Tuesday night. “And they have the seamers at their disposal for a wicket like that. They played well, they outplayed us and they deserve the victory.”
Smith added that Australia could have crossed the 300-run mark after being 198/4 at one stage. But they had lost the way, and ended up setting a 265-run target for India.
“We had our opportunities throughout to post something up 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,” Smith said.
Talking about the pitch at the Dubai International Stadium, Smith said: “It’s clearly not the easiest wicket to bat on. The square block as a whole 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.”
