Steve Smith rues poor record in 2017

Australia skipper Steve Smith has expressed his disappointment on the team’s performance in 2017 and termed it ‘pretty ordinary’. Australia lost the third ODI in Indore by 5-wicket after posting a below-par total on a flat deck. They have lost 11 of the last 13 matches in the 50-overs format away from home with two others washed out. The team is struggling and especially the middle order often succumbs under pressure and is unable to launch on the platform created by the top order.

Smith called it correct finally at the toss and opted to bat first on Sunday. Aaron Finch blasted the opposition bowlers and brought up a scintillating century in his first game on the tour. The skipper too looked comfortable and scored a half-century but both the set batsmen were dismissed at the wrong time as the middle order comprising the likes of Travis Head, Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis crumbled under pressure and could not attack in the death overs.

Impressed with Hardik’s knock

Smith termed the Indian all-rounder’s knock as magnificent and claimed that their batsmen failed to get boundaries, “We couldn’t get the boundaries. 330+ might have been a different result, but credit to India. Hardik was magnificent and Rohit and Jinks (Rahane) were fabulous too,” said Steve Smith.

I’d like to start winning games now

Steve Smith was obviously not happy with the way things panned out in the third match and slashed at the team for their poor display. They have also lost the series and now have to play the remaining two matches only for pride. With the Ashes looming in two months, the Australia skipper said his team needed to get back to winning ways fast.

“It’s a different format (to the Ashes) but I’d certainly like to start winning some games of cricket in every format to be honest. “It’s pretty ordinary. Not good enough for an Australian cricket team and we need to start turning the results around and winning some games,” he said.

The 28-year-old also pointed out the habit of losing after being in good positions is expanding across formats and they need to cash in on those situations now more than ever.

“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,” Smith added.

Australia have won just 3 out of 17 matches across all three formats since the ODI series victory at home against Pakistan in January and he would have loved to win few games on the India tour.

“It’s always hard to take when you lose. (As captain) you’ve got to continue to try and motivate them and get them up for their next two games. 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,” he concluded with a wry smile on his face.