Indian team, as an Aussie journalist pointed out to MS Dhoni, must be sick of the sight of Steven Smith scoring centuries against them.
As the right-hander took the Indian attack apart with another fine hundred, the image of his run-gathering ways in Tests might have come flooding back. Smith had amassed 769 runs in four Tests with four centuries and here he was again after just over two months, in coloured clothing, tormenting them. Smith’s 93-ball 105 powered Australia to 328/7, a total that proved way beyond India’s reach.
“I'm just happy where everything is at the moment,” Smith said when asked about his form. “I guess preparation has been the key. I'm doing the same thing over and over again, and trying to stay on my innings the same way every time. It's working at the moment and hopefully continues to do that on Sunday (final),” he noted.
Smith felt he was lucky to get some loose deliveries from the Indian pacers at the start of his innings. “I don't think so,” he said when asked if the Indian bowlers bowled to his strengths. “For me it was just about giving myself an opportunity to get in, and I got a few freebees early on, a couple of short ones that probably weren't quite short enough, and I got a few boundaries away, and that really got my innings started. From there I just tried to play each ball on its merit, and I was lucky enough to go at just over run a ball. It was nice to have a partnership there with Aaron Finch, as well, to set a foundation for us to go quite hard at the end,” he offered.
Smith went on to praise Finch with whom he shared a 182-run association for the second wicket. “He got a little bit frustrated with a couple of shots that he played, off the spinner where he couldn't get it through the gap,” he said of Finch. “Look it (the innings) will do him a world of good to have spent the time out in the middle. I think that's exactly what he needed. He knows the MCG better than any of us. He plays his state cricket there, and we saw how well he played in the first match of the World Cup there against England. Hopefully, some more of the same from him,” he remarked.
Smith felt that Australian bowlers did a good job to prevent India from making a fist of the target. “I thought it was a pretty similar wicket to the one we played here against Sri Lanka. It was just about summing that up quickly and playing to the conditions. I thought 328 was quite par, and the bowlers had to do a terrific job to get us over the line, and they did that tonight.”
