Booing our boys justified, says Cash

66 (Zazai), 66 (Noor Zadran), 66 (Shah), 70 (Naib), 105 (Nabi), 109 (Najibullah Zadran), 130 (Ali Khil), 131 (Khan), 147 (Alam), 172 (Shahidi).

Henry 8-0-50-0, Boult 10-0-34-0, Ferguson 9.1-3-37-4, Neesham 10-1-31-5 (2w), de Grandhomme 4-1-14-1.

41.1. STEVE Smith and David Warner deserve all the crowd a buse t hey are c opping because “what they did was disgraceful”, Aussie tennis great Pat Cash says.

The star batsmen have been booed relentlessly during games in Southampton, Bristol and Nottingham and were due to cop another hostile reception in London against India overnight.

“What they did was disgraceful,” said Cash, who was unveiled as Australia’s celebrity at the World Cup launch party. “I don’t think anybody in Australia could justify that, or in the world. They deserve to get a bit of a hard time from the crowd, I really do believe they kind of deserve it in a way.

“The texts I got from people was just non-stop, it was all: ‘What the hell were they thinking?’ They deserve it, they deserve some ribbing, get on with it and get it out of the system and then we forgive and move on.

“They’re great cricketers, there’s no denying that. They made a mistake, that’s it, there’s been worse things — match fixings and things like that.”

Smith’s century celebration in a warm-up game against England was marred by boos, albeit mixed in with some applause, while Warner’s halfcentury against Afghanistan was met with a similar reaction. When Smith’s stunning 73 against West Indies ended courtesy of Sheldon Cottrell’s catch of the tournament contender, cheers for the fielder’s brilliant take were quickly overpowered by boos at Nottingham.