Australia captain Steve Smith dismissed the idea that India had a home ground advantage after Australia’s defeat by four wickets in the Champions Trophy semi-final in Dubai. The debate around India playing at a single venue has been a talking point among cricket experts and fans. Despite questions about scheduling, India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir denied any unfair advantage for his team playing all matches in Dubai after they reached the final.
Smith also disagreed with claims of India benefiting from playing all their games at one location. He believes India deserved to win because they outperformed Australia.
“I’m not buying into it,” Smith stated in the post-match press conference. “India played excellent cricket here. The pitch conditions suited their playing style, especially with their spin and seam bowlers. They played better than us and deserved the win.”
Australia chose to bat first after winning the toss, and initially, it seemed like a repeat of the 2023 final was possible. Travis Head’s quickfire 39 off 33 balls gave Australia a strong start, suggesting a total around 300 was achievable.
However, Indian bowlers consistently broke partnerships at crucial times. Smith acknowledged that if Australia had sustained one partnership, a score of 290-300 would have been realistic instead of the 264 they managed.
“I think electing to bat was the correct decision. We had opportunities to score over 300. We lost too many wickets at key moments. If we had extended one of those partnerships, we could have reached 290-300 and applied more pressure,” he said.
“It wasn’t an easy pitch to bat on. The square, having been used extensively in recent months, looked tired, which explains why we haven’t seen high scores in the tournament here. We performed reasonably well but needed a couple of partnerships to last longer to get closer to 300,” he added.
Defending a target of 265, Australia gave India captain Rohit Sharma second chances by dropping catches early in the innings. Later, in the 26th over, Glenn Maxwell missed an opportunity to dismiss Virat Kohli, who then added another 30 runs to his score.
“We dropped a couple of catches, and when you’re trying to build pressure with a score of 260, you need to take those chances. But it’s part of the game, and dropped catches happen. No one intends to drop a catch,” Smith concluded.
