We got away with one, says Smith

Steve Smith admitted his side “got away with one” after Australia escaped with a point against New Zealand at a wet Edgbaston here on Friday.

Steve Smith arranges the fielding position during match against New Zealand in Birmingham on Friday.

Steve Smith admitted his side “got away with one” after Australia escaped with a point against New Zealand at a wet Edgbaston here on Friday. The two teams had played out a draw at the same venue in the last edition of the Champions Trophy, and there is no doubting which side would have been the happier one when this Group A game was abandoned.

“We obviously still had some batters in the shed that can certainly play when you need to be chasing a total like that. But I probably would have preferred to be in New Zealand's position when we came off at the end there. We still had a lot of work to do and they've got a quality bowling attack as well. So we perhaps got away with one there,” Smith said afterwards.

The Australian captain was scathing in his assessment of his side’s bowling performance. Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Patrick Cummins were all off-key, and the all-rounder John Hastings received much punishment too. “It was probably one of the worst bowling displays that we’ve put on for a very long time,” Smith said. “We bowled both sides of wicket. We gave them a lot of freebies. Let's hope its rust (in the case of Starc and Hazlewood) and let's hope it's gone. Because that was pretty ordinary.”

Kane Williamson was entitled to grumble about the outcome but he did not. “We can't control the weather. Although it is a little bit frustrating,” he said. “The guys stuck at the task well with the bat. With the ball there, they came and bowled aggressively. When there's rain around, the Duckworth-Lewis does tend to help the side batting second; but the guys were going well with the ball and it would have been interesting to see how it unfolded.”