After a year long
ban on David
Warner and Steve
Smith for ball-tampering in a test match against South Africa, they are
welcomed by the crowd in the first formally arranged World Cup warm-up match of
Australia in England with a loud jeering of boos and chants of “cheater”. The
small crowd was vocal enough to attempt the stunt of disdaining the returning
stars.
When Warner
entered the field to bat and arrives at the crease, amid the scattered boos,
one spectator was heard shouting: “Get off Warner you cheat.”
Hard luck for
Warner he was dismissed at 43 on a catch by Jonny Bairstow, and was replaced by
former Australian captain Smith. As Warner walks out of the field the booing
continues. However, Smith became the headline of the match with a smooth
century.
A few chants of
“cheat, cheat, cheat” were reported by the BBC, although a lone shout, “Get ’em
Stevie!” was heard from an Australian fan in the crowd of thousands.
Right-hander
Smith managed to score his century with 116 runs on 102 balls, hitting eight
fours and three sixes. The milestone was achieved with a big grin on his face
in the 48th over of the match, he received an applause from the crowd but
between the celebration he was still being greeted with a couple of boos. It
was like he came prepared for the welcome.
While the
commentator Michael Clarke spoke to him after the inning’s, he was asked how
prepared is he to deal with the boos in the coming matches, Smith gave a pretty
well-sorted response.
“I’m pretty
chilled, everyone’s entitled to their opinions and I’m just happy to be playing
and trying to do a job for my team,” said Smith. ““Fortunately I was able to
contribute today with a few runs and hopefully I can take this form into the
World Cup.” After that tidy response, the crowd will have to get their heads to
figure out new ways to get Smith worked up.
Throughout the
match Smith received astonished remarks from the commentators.
“Unbelievable
from Steve Smith, how does he get it there?” Nicholas said. “That’s an
unbelievable stroke.” More cricket news on this website
Smith also became
second top scorer of Australia as he hit 43 on 55 balls while he bat alongside
Australian captain Aaron Finch.
Despite the
crowds efforts to bring the spirits of Smith down he played a splendid inning
and lead Australia towards the win with 9/297 to 50 overs.
The duo also
played an unofficial hastily arranged warm-up match before England vs Australia
against West Indies in England as well. But only a small number of around 30
spectators were present there to watch the fixature. So the duo didn’t catch
much attention and managed to slide by safe. Whereas in the match of England vs
Australia on Saturday had a several thousand spectators present there.
Smith was unstoppable and the fans are still positive
to see him put up a winning play in the later matches of World Cup 2019 and
Ashes.
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