World Cup 2019: Steve Smith and David Warner booed and called cheats by England crowd during the warm-up game

Australia played hosts England in the first warm-up match at the World Cup 2019. Aaron Finch won the toss and decided to bat first on a belter of a wicket. An expected move was David Warner walking out to open the batting with skipper Finch and Usman Khawaja was pushed to the middle order. When Warner stepped onto the field, the England crowd booed him and shouted cheater and it repeated when Steve Smith made his way out to the pitch as well.

It was well known that the Barmy Army would give them a hostile reception and that is what happened. Warner first wasn’t affected by it and batted just the way he and Australia would’ve wanted. The left-hander batted cautiously and contributed 43 runs before being dismissed. He seemed to have carried on his positive form and rhythm from the IPL.

Responds to boos with a hundred

The next man in was Smith who also had to face the booing and chants of cheater. Wearing the national jersey after a really long wait, the former skipper was determined to make this opportunity count. Being booed is a huge moral impression for any cricketer but Smith had other plans. He put his head down and focused on getting runs on the board.

He kept losing partners but his objective was clear, to get the team to a big total and bat through. Smith got to his fifty and continued hitting the gaps and finding the boundaries. Soon enough a six brought him one step away from a century. When he raised his bat the crowd still wasn’t pleased and a few boos could be heard.

His stroke making was so impressive that commentator Mark Nicholas described it as – “Unbelievable from Steve Smith, how does he get it there?” he said. “That’s an unbelievable stroke.”

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He kept going even after the hundred and was only dismissed on the penultimate delivery of the innings. Smith scored 116 off 102 balls and ensured that the Aussies despite middle orders struggles still managed to post a challenging 297-run total for the loss of 9 wickets in their 50 overs. His knock was studded with eight boundaries and three sixes.

Smith with his knock hasn’t just given Australia hopes in this warm-up game but would’ve also forced the Barmy Army to rethink their strategy as it clearly wasn’t effective today.

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