Smith: Not good enough for an Australian team

Cricket365
September 25, 2017

Australia captain Steve Smith described his side as “not good enough” after they lost to India in the third ODI in Nagpur to concede the series to the hosts with two games still to play.

The visitors started well with the bat after Smith won the toss, reaching 242-2 in 38 overs thanks to a century from returning opener Aaron Finch but slumped to 293/6 in their 50 overs.

REPORT: India win ODI series despite Finch century

India reached their target with more than two overs to spare to win by five wickets and Smith said his team has to find a way to motivate themselves for the last two games of the series – the next ODI is in Bangalore on Thursday.

Smith said after the game: “It’s always hard when you lose. Particularly when you lose three-nil. We’ve got to continue to try and motivate them and get them up for the next two games.

“We’ve got to start winning games of cricket. 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 an Australian cricket team. We need to start turning the results around and winning some games of cricket.”

The Australia skipper also praised the bowling efforts of India seamers Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, saying the duo are ” two of the best death bowlers going around.”

The pacers played a big part in pulling the game back for the home team after Australia’s good start with the bat.

Smith added: “I think a mixture of guys making probably the wrong decisions on the wrong balls. Also, some pretty well executed bowling.

“I think Bumrah and Bhuvi are probably two of the best death bowlers going around, particularly when the wicket sort of slows up a little bit as it did.

“We still need to find a way. We set a template really well. The first 38 overs were magnificent. We set it up and we just weren’t to execute it in the back end.”