Smith says his dismissal was a crucial moment in Australias semi-final loss to India
Agar: Australia building more depth a big positive despite loss
I missed a full toss. It wasnt ideal. This is one of the greatest contemporary batters speaking on a moment that swung the match away from his team.
From there, Australia got 66 runs off the 75 balls available to them. Alex Carey hit 61 off 57, batting with the tail in the later stages. Nathan Ellis tried to crash some late boundaries. But if you are looking for a moment in the match that paved the way for Indias dominance, this is a big one.
Australia only set India 265 for victory. But given this was likely the most batting-friendly surface at this venue for the whole tournament, Smith rued the chance to go big.
I think we had our opportunities throughout to post something up above 300, Smith said. 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, were probably getting up to 290 to 300 and were putting a bit of pressure on the scoreboard.
Steven Smith was bowled by a full tossAssociated Press
The square block as a whole, I think, has seen a lot of cricket over the last couple of months. We can see its pretty tired and thats probably the reason why we havent 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.
I think when youre trying to squeeze the game and youre trying to build a lot of pressure, you need to take those chances when youve got 260 [264] on the board, Smith said. But thats the game, it happens. No one means to drop a catch. Its part of the game.
