I got a pretty good ball from Jadeja: Smith on his innings, turning point, and learning from the game against India

Steve Smith said that his dismissal triggered a collapse against India in their opening match of the World Cup 2023.  Smith who top-scored for Australia in the match remarked that Australia could learn from this game just at the beginning of the tournament.

Smith speaks about the turning point

At Chepauk, Ravindra Jadeja’s massive blow helped India restrict Australia to just 199. Just when Australia started to rebuild the innings based on the partnership between David Warner (41) and Steve Smith (46) followed by another one between Smith and Marnus Labuschagne (27), Jadeja happened! He sent both Smith and Labuschagne and Australia hardly found anyone else after that as the saviour.

Speaking of the same, Smith opined, “Yeah, perhaps [my dismissal was the turning point],” Smith said after Australia lost by six wickets. “I mean you never want to get out. We were trying to take it a little bit deeper, and it was obviously very challenging [on this pitch]. And it was going to be challenging for the guy coming in…We were just trying to take it a little bit deeper and unfortunately felt like I got a pretty good ball from Jadeja. Felt like I was back playing Test cricket. But to lose those wickets in a row probably cost us getting up to around 250.”

Smith on Australia’s lesson

He further added, “I thought I was playing quite nicely. It wasn’t a wicket where you can just go out and muscle it and have a high strike rate I suppose. We had to work our way through that scenario, and it was challenging. Felt like I was moving into the ball nicely and played a few nice drives off the fast bowlers and was working spin around. So, [I] felt good and unfortunately couldn’t go on to make a bigger one.”

Later he also mentioned that Australia could learn from this game. He explained, “I think we can learn a bit from this game, definitely. We’ve talked as a group [about] playing according to the surface and maybe a nice partnership at that stage would’ve been good. If we were able to extend it a little bit longer and had one more partnership we could’ve posted a total that could’ve been defendable on that wicket if all things stayed the same, I suppose.”