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Steve Smith rues Australia's inability to exploit opportunities

Steve Smith says Australia need to turn the results around before the Ashes

By Unnikrishnan
Steve Smith

Bengaluru, September 25: Australia are experiencing a terrible run in the past 12 months in one-day format. Their five-wicket defeat to India was the 11th successive loss in ODIs away from home.

But skipper Steve Smith, thought the outcome could have been far different in Indore.

"I probably thought our first probably 38 overs with the bat was very good," Smith said.

"That was kind of the template we were trying to set. Two guys in the top four going on - one guy to get a hundred obviously, and the others bat around. We just weren't able to execute it in the back end.

"I think that was probably... we got 69 off last 74 balls lost 5 wickets. If we got to 330-340, which we probably should have done, things certainly could have been different," he said.

Smith said Australia were not exploiting good positions that they found themselves in.

"It's been a bit of a trend for this format and the Test format as well. We're quite often getting ourselves into good positions and we're not taking advantage of those and today was no different. We continually address it and it's just hard to put the finger on exactly what it is we're doing or not doing to get the results we're after.

"It's a different format but I'd certainly like to start winning some games of cricket in every format, to be honest. Our results haven't been good enough and we need to turn them around," he said.

Smith lamented the fact that he dropped some crucial catches in the series.

"At the moment, my catching hasn't been good enough," Smith said. "I think I've dropped one in every game I've played so far [in this series]. I've been working hard, just might need to work a little bit harder to try and set the standard.

"It went in the air and was swirling a little bit, a fair bit of spin on the ball. I expect myself to take those chances. If I get my hands to the ball, I expect to catch them," he said.

Smith maintained that the team would want to win and get some momentum going into the Ashes

"It's always hard when you lose. Particularly, when you're down three-nil at the moment. We've got to continue to try and motivate the players and get them up for the next two games.

"I think we've lost 13 of the last 15 games we've played away with two being no results. That's pretty ordinary. Not good enough for Australian cricket."

Story first published: Monday, September 25, 2017, 10:24 [IST]
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