IND vs AUS Champions Trophy 2025: Australia came into the ICC Champions Trophy without some serious starpower, especially in their bowling unit. World Cup-winnning captain Pat Cummins and frontline bowlers Mitch Starc and Josh Hazlewood were absent. But it wasn’t the bowling that Smith felt was the difference between India and Australia in Dubai on Tuesday. Chasing 265, India were made to work hard on a tricky batting surface but they eventually got home with 11 balls and four wickets to spare. Speaking after the match, Smith felt Australia were a few runs short after opting to bat first.
“It wasn’t the easiest batting condition, probably why the scores were as they were. I thought we could have put a few more runs on. We lost a couple of wickets at crucial times. If we got 280 plus, things could have been different,” Smith said in the post-match chat, adding that the lack of sufficient partnerships hurt the world champions. “It always felt like we were one wicket too many down at each stage of the game. If we could have extended one of those partnerships, that’s probably where we get to 280. There would be a little more pressure on the game.”
IND vs AUS Semi-Final LIVE Cricket Score, Full Scorecard
Smith, who was the top scorer with 73, was involved in three different 50-plus partnerships (with Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, and Alex Carey) but the highest of those was 56, while India had one big stand wth Shreyas Iyer and Virat Kohli adding 91. Australia were particularly hampered by losing Smith and Maxwell back-to-back in the 37th and 38th over after which Alex Carey had to consolidate.
Smith was full of praise for an inexperienced bowling attack. “I thought the bowlers did a really good job. They worked hard throughout. The spinners squeezed and enabled us to take the game deeper than it could have gone. It was a tricky wicket for batting and tough to rotate the strike at times. I thought everyone did a really good job tonight.”
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