Mumbai, March 18 (IANS) Australia captain Steve Smith admitted that the first ODI against India, which they lost by five wickets, could have been more interesting for his team if they had posted a score above 250 with the bat.
Friday’s pitch at the Wankhede Stadium offered persistent help to the fast bowlers throughout the match, making life difficult for the batters. Australia, despite Mitchell Marsh’s 81 and being at 129/2, crashed to 188 all out as Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj picked three wickets each.
“We weren’t expecting this at the Wankhede, usually pretty good scores. India bowled really well. We probably left a few out there. If we had got over 250, it would have been interesting the way the ball was swinging and seaming.
Maybe 260-270 was a par score. I don’t think it was a great wicket, it was offering a fair bit for the seamers at times. The ball swung pretty much for 30-odd overs for both teams. We just needed to score more runs. Credit to India,” Smith said after the match.
Smith also praised the unbeaten 108-run stand between KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja that took India over the line in a chase of 189 and towards a 1-0 lead in the three-game series, and rued his batters’ inability to put up one big partnership.
“KL and Jaddu’s partnership was really good when they were under pressure. We started pretty well. Mitch played really nicely and took the game on early and got a few away and kept going. We lost too many wickets through the middle,” he said.
“We weren’t able to get a partnership and get to a reasonable total. We were always one partnership away from them beating us. Jadeja and Rahul showed how to do it,” he added.
The second ODI of the three-match series between India and Australia will be played at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam on Sunday.
–IANS
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