Dubai, March 5 (HS): Australia captain Steve Smith admitted that his wicket proved to be a turning point in the match against India. Smith was batting on 73 runs in the 37th over and it seemed that he would take the team till the last overs.

But then he stepped up to play Mohammed Shami’s full toss ball, but missed it. The ball hit his off stump and he was clean bowled.

After this, Australia added only 66 runs in the remaining 75 balls. Although Alex Carey played a brilliant innings of 61 runs off 57 balls and Nathan Ellis also hit some big shots, but Smith’s wicket proved to be the moment to strengthen India’s hold.

After the match, Smith said, My plan was to put pressure on the fast bowlers and rotate the strike against the spinners, but I could not implement it well. My wicket fell at the wrong time. If I had stayed a little longer, we could have reached close to 300. Alex Carey was playing well. It was disappointing, but this happens in cricket.

Australia gave India a target of 265 runs, but Smith felt that this pitch was the most batting friendly pitch of the tournament and his team should have scored big.

He said, We got opportunities to score above 300, but we lost one wicket extra at important times. If we could have stretched one partnership longer, we could have reached 290-300 and put pressure on India.

Apart from this, Australia’s fielding was also poor. They dropped two catches of Rohit Sharma and also dropped the catch of Virat Kohli at 51 runs. However, all these catches were difficult.

Smith said, When you have a score of only 260 runs, it is important to capitalize on every opportunity. But it happens, no one drops catches intentionally. It is a part of the game.

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar