Birmingham: Australia skipper Steven Smith came down heavily on his team’s bowling attack against New Zealand in their opening match of the Champions Trophy and termed it ‘pretty ordinary’ after the game ended late Friday evening.
Rain came to Australia’s rescue as the match got washed out when they were struggling at 53 for three in nine overs, chasing a revised target of 235 in 33 overs.
“I thought it was probably one of the worst bowling displays that we’ve put on for a very long time,” a disappointed Smith said after the match. “We bowled both sides of wicket. We gave them a lot of freebies. And it was pretty ordinary, to be honest with you.”
The Kiwis were 254 for three in the 40th over before Kane Williamson’s run out sparked a slump and they could post 291 all out.
This was Mitchell Starc’s first match since the second Test against India in March and Smith hoped that he would come good in their second ODI against Bangladesh.
“Let’s hope it’s rust and let’s hope it’s gone, because that was pretty ordinary. Credit to them they (New Zealand) came out quite hard and played quite well up top and got their innings going. Kane timed his innings beautifully, played really well throughout the middle but we did not bowl well at all,” insisted the Aussie captain.
Smith was candid enough to admit that rain came to his team’s rescue. “We still had a lot of work to do and they’ve got a quality bowling attack as well, so we perhaps got away with one there. We certainly would have preferred to be in New Zealand’s position when we came off at the end,” Smith said with a wry smile.
“It’s obviously not ideal for both sides to have a washout. For us now it’s just about making sure that we’re playing each game like a final and winning the next two,” he added.
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