Australia beat England in second Ashes Test to go 2-0 up in five-match series. Steve Smith had led the national cricket team for the first time since 2018 ball tampering gate.
The stand-in captain has said that the hosts played well and were in control of the game after the first day of second Ashes Test at the Adelaide Oval.
“I wasn’t nervous. I think Jos (Buttler) played very well, and played over 200 balls, so it was good resistance along with Woakes and Robbo (Robinson). We wanted to stay calm because it would take a couple of good balls and a couple of wickets to get the win. I did enjoy captaincy and the guys played well and controlled the game after the first day,” said Smith in the post-match presentation ceremony.
Smith signalled out left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc for doing well in the Adelaide Test in the absence of frontline seamers Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins. “Davey (Warner) and Marnus’s partnership set it up, so we could control the game. A special mention to Starc, who has bowled as well as he’s bowled in a long time, and he led the attack really well. I think he summed it up quickly that it wasn’t swinging and he was just hitting a good length and attacking the batters.”
The third Test will be played from December 26.
Australia lead five-match series 2-0.
Brief scores: Australia 473/9 dec in 150.4 overs and 230/9 dec in 61 overs beat England 236 all out in 84.1 overs and 192 all out in 113.1 overs (Rory Burns 34, Chris Woakes 44; Jhye Richardson 5/42, Mitchell Starc 2/43) by 275 runs.
