'India obviously played some really good cricket here (in Dubai). The surface kind of suits their style with the spinners that they've got and the seamers that they have at their disposal for a wicket like that. '
Australia captain Steve Smith played down talk about India having venue advantage after being comprehensively beaten by four wickets in the semi-final of the ICC Champions Trophy in Dubai on Tuesday.
India playing all their Champions Trophy matches at one venue, Dubai, has been a hot topic for debate among former cricketers and some sections of fans. There's hardly been a press conference where questions haven't been raised about the tournament's scheduling.
After India stormed into the final, head coach Gautam Gambhir quickly dismissed the possibility of his side receiving an undue advantage of playing all of their matches in Dubai.
Even Smith did not buy into claims that India had an advantage by playing all its matches at one venue. Instead, he felt they deserved to win and completely "outplayed" Australia.
"Yeah, look, I'm not buying into it. I think it is what it is. India obviously played some really good cricket here (in Dubai). The surface kind of suits their style with the spinners that they've got and the seamers that they have at their disposal for a wicket like that. They played well, they outplayed us and they deserve the victory," said Smith at the post-match press conference.
After Australia won the toss and opted to bat, glimpses of the 2023 final reverberated in the stadium. Travis Head provided a brisk start with a swift 39 off 33 balls, putting the Baggy Greens in a dominant position. With Australia scoring at a healthy run-rate, a total somewhere around 300 appeared to be plausible.
The only factor keeping them from attaining their goal was India’s bowlers regularly breaking their partnerships at crucial junctures.
Smith admitted that if Australia had extended one of their partnerships, 290 to 300 would have been a realistic total instead of settling for 264.
“Yeah, I think the toss was the right decision. I think we had our opportunities throughout to post something above 300. We were probably just that one wicket down too many at a few stages throughout the innings. If we extended one of those partnerships a little bit, we're probably getting up 290 - 300, and we're putting a bit of pressure on the scoreboard," he said.
“So, it's clearly not the easiest wicket to bat on. The square block as a whole I think has seen a lot of cricket over the last couple of months. We can see it's pretty tired and that's probably the reason why we haven't seen a score above 300 in the tournament here so far.
"So we did a reasonable job but we probably just lacked a couple of those partnerships just dragging out a little bit further to get us up somewhere near 300 or just above," he added.
While defending its modest 265-run target, Australia gave India skipper Rohit Sharma two lifelines by letting two catches slip away in the powerplay. In the 26th over, Glenn Maxwell had a golden chance to send Virat Kohli back to the dugout.
He dived to his right and went for a one-handed attempt, however, the ball didn't stick in his hand, allowing Virat to add 30 more runs to his name.
"We dropped a couple of chances and I think when you're trying to squeeze the game and you're trying to build a lot of pressure, you need to take those chances when you've got 260 on the board. But that's the game, it happens. No one means to drop a catch. It's part of the game," Smith said.
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