Melbourne [Australia], December 30 (ANI): Australia skipper Pat Cummins showered praise on Steve Smith’s knock in the Melbourne Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against India and said that the 35-year-old was brilliant.
Australia clinched a 184-run victory over India at the Melbourne Test, with the win the host took a 2-1 lead in the series. While India’s chances of qualifying for the World Test Championship (WTC) Final at Lord’s fade away.
In the first inning, Smith displayed a stunning knock and scored 140 runs from 197 balls at a strike rate of 71.07. He smashed 13 fours and 3 sixes during his time on the crease in the first inning. Meanwhile, Smith scored 13 runs from 41 balls in the second inning. The veteran Aussie batter also contributed while fielding, he took some crucial slip catches after standing behind the stumps.
Speaking at the post-match presentation, Cummins lauded Marnus Labuschagne for helping the skipper in the second inning. The skipper added that the hosts wanted to take a victory over India out of the equation.
“What an amazing Test match, I reckon one of the best I’ve been part of. All week the crowd has been ridiculous, and it’s been amazing to be part of. Marnus helped me out in that second innings big time, happy to contribute. Amazing innings from Steve, winning the toss, it wasn’t easy on the first day, to get up to high 400s was terrific. We wanted to take an India victory out of the equation,” Cummins was quoted by ESPNcricinfo as saying.
Labuschagne scored 70 runs from 139 balls at a strike rate of 50.36 in the second inning. His crucial 57-run stand with Cummins propelled Australia to 234 in the second inning.
The skipper lauded Smith’s fielding abilities and said that sometimes it goes unnoticed.
“We had plenty of runs to play with, and as many helmets around the bat as we could. We put a lot of work into our lower-order batting, we work a lot on how best to bowl to the opposition batters firstly, but also how we can contribute with the bat. We were a bit behind on the over rate, so we thought, get Trav in there, it may help us out with that. [Smith] just showed how to bat on that wicket. He was brilliant, and some handy catches, sometimes that goes unnoticed in the slips. Very happy change room, we’ll savour this for a little bit before we get to Sydney,” he added.
Australia gave a target of 340 runs to India at the start of Day 05 of the Melbourne Test. The visitors had the whole day in hand but couldn’t make the best out of it. The fiery spells from the Aussie bowling attack bundled out India at 155 in the 80th over.
Pat Cummins was named the ‘Player of the Match’ following a stupendous performance with both bat and ball. (ANI)
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