The result of a clinical team effort, gushes Smith

Pulling together: Australian players celebrate the fall of an Indian wicket on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: R.V. Moorthy

The satisfaction of a Test win in conditions suiting the opposition reflected in the glow on Steve Smith’s visage.

Australia’s stand-in captain said “It was a great team performance. The pressure we were able to apply with the ball was amazing.”

He added. “The Usman [Khawaja] and Marnus [Labuschagne] partnership really set things up for us. The luck Marnus had with Jadeja’s no-ball was a big moment in the game.”

Smith said, “[Nathan] Lyon obviously got a lot of the rewards in the second innings, but the bowling group as a collective was outstanding. [Todd] Murphy built a lot of pressure. [Matthew] Kuhnemann got the big wicket of Virat [Kohli].”

He added, “The way we went about it today, the boys were just clinical. The message at the start of the day was to take the scoreboard out of play and pretend like it was the first day.”

Sheer brilliance: Steve Smith pulls off a fantastic catch to dismiss Cheteshwar Pujara on Thursday.
| Photo Credit:
PTI

On the spectacular catches to dismiss Shreyas Iyer and Cheteshwar Pujara, Smith said, “Iyer was going at a good pace and his catch by Khawaja was really good.”

He added, “And then mine. I suppose I was just fortunate that it stuck. Pujara played really nicely. That partnership could have been anything.”

About captaincy in India, he said, “It’s a game of chess, every ball is an event, means something. It’s fun moving people around, making batsmen think.”

Smith said he was happy that Australia made the WTC final. “We have ticked that box.”