Australia were in nice position since day 1 in WTC final, says batter Steve Smith after win over India
Jun 11, 2023
London [UK] June 12 : Australia batter Steve Smith said that his team deserved to win the final match because they dominated the ICC World Test Champions (WTC) final against India from the opening day of the match.
After dominating India over the course of five days Australia secured their maiden World Test Championship 2023 title on Sunday at the Oval, London. India succumbed to a score of 234 in 63.3 overs with Mohammad Shami as the last player standing with a score of 13(8)*.
"It's a great achievement for this group, we played some good cricket in the last 2 years to get over here, so did India. We got into a nice position on the first day," Smith said at the post-match presentation.
Head led Australia to a decisive 209-run victory in the one-off Test with scores of 163 and 18, defeating Steve Smith and Alex Carey who both put up good efforts.
At 76/3 on the first day of the match at The Oval, Head entered the crease with Australia in trouble. He later joined forces with Smith (121) for a 285-run stand that turned the tide in favour of his team.
Smith praised batter Travis Head for his sensational hundred against India. India was pushed on the back foot by Travis Head's aggressive attitude, and as the day went on, runs kept coming in for Head and Steve Smith.
Trav (Head) played really well, allowed me to anchor the innings, it helped us control the innings well," Smith said.
In the second innings of the match, Virat Kohli was batting at 49 runs when Smith made a superb catch off the bowling of Scott Boland. According to Smith, the catch gave them hope that they were on the verge of winning.
"That catch was important for us. Virat was important and Jadeja as well. That got us going. We deserved the win and got the win in the end. Happy with the bowling effort that the guys threw in there," Smith further added.
