India didn’t have an answer for us: Smith

December 27, 2014 03:09 pm | Updated April 07, 2016 06:09 am IST - Melbourne

Australian captain Steve Smith pulls the ball during his splendid knock of 192 on day 2 of the third Test match in Melbourne on Saturday.

Australian captain Steve Smith pulls the ball during his splendid knock of 192 on day 2 of the third Test match in Melbourne on Saturday.

Steven Smith is in a rarefied zone in the ongoing series.

His beautifully paced 192 on Saturday meant the 25-year-old right-hander has 567 runs from five innings in this series — two of them unbeaten — at a daunting 189.00.

He has three hundreds in three Tests, two of them in his first two Tests as captain. Despite the enormity of his achievements, Smith looked relaxed and humble after the day’s play.

His thoughts were trained on the team. “I think the most pleasing thing about it is that we got 530 runs on the board, I think that’s a very good first innings total for us.”

He added, “Started pretty slow yesterday, didn’t I? It was just about being patient and then bowlers keep coming back and getting tired.”

Smith elaborated. “They (India) have got three quicks and a spinner. The longer we keep them out there, the more scoring opportunities you have. That was our plan, to keep them out there as long as possible. There were periods when we didn’t score much, but we were able to catch up later.”

The Australian captain lauded the effort of the lower order batsmen and the tail. “I think our guys have come out and taken the bowlers on. Mitch (Mitchell Johnson) looked good again and Ryan Harris came out and batted beautifully. I don’t think they (India) had an answer for us.”

On Brad Haddin’s combative half-century, Smith said, “He batted really well. Brad (Haddin) bats best when he comes out and take on the opposition, he did that today. He was positive from the start. I thought he played the short ball really well.”

Ashwin optimistic

Despite Australia’s first innings score of 530, India off-spinner R. Ashwin was optimistic.

Asked about India’s chances in the third Test, Ashwin replied, “I am no one to basically look and comment at this game. If you ask me I will say only one thing: we’ll make 650 and try and put them back in.”

The off-spinner acknowledged India’s plans for the day did not quite work out. “We wanted to get them (Australia) out pretty early. That was the plan. Unfortunately Smith batted very well. They got a bit too many runs for our liking. But if you look at the overall picture, the score is pretty par for the game. The wicket seems slow and it is pretty flat. We’ll take 100 odd for one and we’ll like to pile on the runs tomorrow.”

Queried about India’s short-pitched ball tactics against Brad Haddin, Ashwin said, “We really thought he had a genuine weakness over there. We continue to think he has a weakness over there. We will continue to target him in the next Test match as well.He doesn’t quite look that comfortable. That’s the idea.”

On his bowling in the Test, Ashwin said, “The last two days have been quite hard. I have put a real honest effort. Put in whatever I have worked on to practice. I have been really disciplined in my skills. There have been better spells in patches, but this is probably the best overall performance (in Australia).”

Ashwin said he was not surprised that he came in to bowl rather late in the morning. “I am not the one to stand next him (Dhoni) in slips and ask him for a bowl. The idea was to exploit the new ball as much as possible. I thought if we had a breakthrough, I would come in handy against Johnson. I was prepared with my plans in place.”

Ashwin was not willing to blame the pacemen for the excessive runs they conceded. “At the end of the day you can’t point a finger at anybody else that he went wrong. It is a team game. I will believe until the end it is a team game.”

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