SMITH SPARKS
DEJA vu struck India at the SCG last night as for the second time in three days they were forced to absorb a heavy one- day loss to Australia despite their dashing batsmen scoring freely themselves.
After the home side racked up a whopping 4- 389 in their 50 overs — a score underpinned by Steve Smith’s second ton in three days — India fell well short after a promising start to end on 9- 338.
India fought gamely in their chase, with openers Mayank Agarwal ( 28) and Shikhar Dhawan ( 30) rocketing to 58 off the first 7.4 overs.
But the pair’s dismissal, five balls apart, put the brakes on the Indian chase before skipper Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer set about rebuilding the visitors’ innings.
Kohli ( 89) was his usual masterful self, but his loss, in the 35th over, was a huge blow to India, one from which they ultimately never recovered.
A late flurry from Ravindra Jadeja ( 24 from 11) gave Australia some nervous moments, with the visitors threatening to pull off the unlikeliest of wins.
But two wickets in two balls from Pat Cummins ( 3- 67) finally extinguished the Indian challenge.
Earlier, two days after making his stunning 62- ball ODI hundred against India, the magic man of Australian cricket walked back onto the SCG on Sunday and did the exact same again, right down to the balls faced.
Votes close for the International Cricket Council’s prestigious Sir Garfield Sobers cricketer of the decade award on December 6, and Smith is putting forward a powerful late case to the panel of judges that he should dethrone the likes of King Kohli and AB de Villiers as the GOD ( Greatest of Decade). At a time when the world of soccer is bereaving the man who had the Hand of God, Smith’s proclamation last week that he had finally “found his hands” after a period of sluggish form, is starting to look like cricket’s own version of divine intervention.
David Warner ( 83), Aaron Finch ( 60), Marnus Labuschagne ( 70) and a six- hitting fireworks display from Glenn Maxwell ( 63 not out off 29 balls) meant every batsman contributed to Australia’s massive total of 389 — their biggest ever at the SCG.
But Smith was again the main event with 14 fours and two sixes.
Kohli and de Villiers are more known for their white ball feats than Smith, but the Australian’s 62- ball double dose of punishment for India proved that the country’s best since Bradman may have reinvented himself once again.
Normally an accumulator and anchor in the shorter formats, Smith has blazed backto- back centuries at a quicker rate than any Australian other than Maxwell ( 51 balls, 2015) and James Faulkner ( 57 balls, 2013) … and coincidentally, the likes of de Villiers ( 31 balls, 2015) and Kohli ( 52 balls, 2013).
Sunday’s Smith hundred ( which lifted to Australia to a mouth- watering 763 runs over their last two innings), would have bettered Friday’s effort by a ball, had partner Labuschagne not slipped over on his way back for a second when Smith was on 98.
Smith’s extraordinary feats against England in last year’s Ashes suggested he was a man at the peak of his powers, but his incredible start to the summer shows he is still evolving.