Smith said I'm slow, it was nice to beat him for pace: Craig Overton

Talk about dream debuts, Craig Overton was having one such as he received his maiden cap for the Three Lions on a historic Ashes Test. This was the first time in cricket history that the arch-rivals Australia and England are battling out in a Day-Night Test and the excitement around was explicitly palpable.

A perfect icing on the cake for the 27-year-old Overton was an unforgettable maiden scalp of the talismanic Steve Smith. The Australian skipper drove his side to victory all by himself at the Gabba and he was close to replicating some humongous here at Adelaide. He was off to a good start and played some delightful shots.

Something out of the blue happened at this juncture as the debutant Overton picked up the all-important wicket of Smith in the most comprehensive of ways. His stumps got shattered and an ecstatic Overton was unstoppable. He took a lap around the ground and his celebration suggested what his wicket meant to him.

“It was a pretty nice one,” said Overton. “There was a plan to go straight at him. We thought we could keep him quiet doing that, and then one went through him a little bit quicker and beat him for pace. He was saying I was slow, so it was nice that I beat him for pace.”

I was on the boundary, so I don’t know what happened: Overton

Talking about the Smith-Anderson fiasco which took the internet by a storm, Overton suggested he didn’t know what happened there because he was on the boundary rope when this happened. He suggested it felt good to grab his wicket.

“I was on the boundary so I don’t know too much. I don’t know what was said. It looked like they got under his skin, but he still got 40. It was nice to get him in the end. Just the way he left the ball, almost exaggerating a little bit. He didn’t do that in the first Test at Brisbane. I don’t know if he was doing that to wind ourselves up a little bit,” Said the 27-year-old.

The speedster suggested they wanted to capitalize on the overcast conditions in the first session, which didn’t go according to the plan. “This morning there were overcast skies, so we tried to make sure we capitalised on that. The first session didn’t go to plan, but they didn’t get away from us. They’re not too far ahead of the game [after the first day], so if we can get early wickets, we’re confident,” He concluded.