Ashes 2017/18: Steven Smith Says England's Sledging Inspired Him To Do Better

Australia took a 2-0 lead in the Ashes series after beating England by 120 runs in the day/night Test as the Adelaide Oval in Adelaide. England came into the fifth day with high hopes, but all those hopes faded away with the dismissal of Joe Root and Moeen Ali early in the day. The tourists lost their last six wickets in the first session of the last day.

The match was played with high intensity as players from both the teams wanted to do their country’s proud and play well in the match. The first innings banter made fans from both the countries and fans around globe excited about the contest. James Anderson and Stuart Broad tried to get under the skins of Australian batsmen David Warner and Steven Smith. Anderson believes that Smith’s first innings score of 40 runs which was below his high standards was a result of his relentless sledging on the world’s best batsman.

However, Australian skipper Smith disagreed with England’s Anderson and said that the sledging inspired him to do better:

 “I think the opposite, I think they actually switched me on to be perfectly honest with you. It was when they stopped talking to me that I might have lost concentration.  I actually enjoyed it. It made me really focused, it got me in my little bubble and I had my idiosyncrasies about myself and it got me going. They can think what they like but from my point of view it made me focus.” 

England’s captain Joe Root said that the sledging from both the sides showed the passion of the players and their desperation to win:

 “It’s Ashes cricket, I don’t think it ever went too far, I think both sides are desperate to win and desperate to do their country proud. And that was just expressed, I think, out on the field.” 

Root also said that they would have to time their sledging according to the situation in the upcoming matches:

 “We have to make sure that we read the situation next time around, it could be completely different, I think we have obviously got a few different plans that seemed to work quite nicely here but every game is different. (Smith) is a good player, he will come back, I’m sure, with some sort of reply. It’s nice to know that we have a number of different guys make him work very hard for his runs and get him out so yeah it is promising in a way, yeah.”