RSBL Mumbai clinch third IPL title in last-ball finish

This was, barring a WWE-style rebirth, Rising Pune Supergiant's last ever IPL game. They made sure it went the distance, all the way to the last ball, despite keeping Mumbai Indians down to the lowest first-innings total in an IPL final.

Somehow, Pune managed to drag a chase of 130 to the last ball.

The first ever IPL final had come down to the last ball too. Then, nine years ago, Sohail Tanvir pulled L Balaji for a single to win it for Rajasthan Royals.

Now, Mitchell Johnson bowled to Daniel Christian with Pune needing four to win. Bowling from around the wicket, Johnson went full and straight. Christian whipped it away to the left of deep square leg. J Suchith, the substitute fielder, fumbled at the boundary, allowing a second run. That wouldn't do for Pune. They needed four to win, and three to tie.

The batsmen chased a desperate third with Suchith's throw almost already in Parthiv Patel's gloves. Once Parthiv collected it safely, only one result was possible. Mumbai Indians, playing their fourth final, wrapped up their third title, winning by one run.

Krunal Pandya was Mumbai's hero with the bat, his 38-ball 47 dragging them from 79 for 7 to an eventual 129 for 8, a total that would enable their bowlers to scrap all the way. Then, helped along by Pune's ODI-style top-order approach, those scrapping bowlers managed to make the required rate creep steadily upwards - with five overs to go, Pune were only two down but needed 47 from 30.

Given Mumbai's death bowling, this was definitely not over. Jasprit Bumrah took out MS Dhoni in the 17th over. Then Lasith Malinga and Bumrah again ensured Pune would only get two boundaries across the 18th and 19th. That left Steven Smith, batting on 51, and Manoj Tiwary 11 to get from the last over.

Despite taking a boundary off his first ball, they couldn't quite do it against Johnson.

Mumbai bat, Mumbai falter

Six of the nine previous IPL finals had been won by the team batting first. Perhaps that and how it was difficult to chase in Hyderabad was why Rohit Sharma went against his team's record this season of eight wins in 11 games while chasing. That too when they only had a 3-2 record while batting first.

Perhaps it had something to do with Mumbai's record against Pune: they had met three times this season, and Pune had won all three times, twice while batting first.

It seemed, right through Mumbai's innings, that they had some mental scars from all those defeats to Pune. A first-ball leave from Lendl Simmons set the tone for a cautious start on a slower-than-usual Hyderabad surface, with only seven coming off the first two overs, against Jaydev Unadkat's back-of-a-length cutters and Washington Sundar's flat, stump-to-stump offspin.

Then Unadkat dismissed both openers in the third over - a short ball cramping Parthiv Patel's attempt to pull, a slower ball clipping Simmons' leading edge and popping back for a diving return catch.

Mumbai never really recovered from there, despite Rohit Sharma smacking Lockie Ferguson for four fours in the sixth over. Adam Zampa removed Rohit and Kieron Pollard in the 11th over, and Mumbai were 65 for 5.

Krunal gives Mumbai a chance

Christian trapped Hardik Pandya lbw in the 14th, playing across the line, and Karn Sharma was run out in the next over, in most comical manner. Dropped by Christian diving to his left at slip, he ran out of his crease in a panic anyway. It seemed to sum up Mumbai's state of mind.

Krunal, though, seemed to be achieving some clarity of thought. For now, he was simply thinking of extending the innings as far as he could. It took until the 19th over for him to hit his first six, straight back over Unadkat's head. Then he swiped and slogged Christian for a four and a six in the last over, off which Pune scored 14. Still, their total was 14 short of the previous-lowest first-innings total in an IPL final.

That had come in 2009, when Deccan Chargers defended 143.

Rahane, Smith keep Mumbai in the game

No team had defended a total of 129 or below since the 2013 season. Mumbai, though, had the bowling to do it. Pune, meanwhile, adopted a keep-wickets-in-hand approach. With Rahul Tripathi lbw in the third over to Bumrah, Smith joined Ajinkya Rahane at the crease. Rahane could have fallen for 14, foxed by a Malinga slower ball, but Krunal failed to hold on to a fairly straightforward chance at short cover.

By the time he holed out to long-on in the 12th over, he had made 44 of 38, batting as he would in the longer forms of the game. Smith, playing in the same manner, was batting on 18 off 25 at that point. Given the slowness of the surface and the difficulty new batsmen would face in getting going straightaway, this seemed a questionable approach.

As it happened, Dhoni struggled initially, scoring only four off his first nine balls. With Karn Sharma and Krunal getting the ball to grip, and Malinga varying his pace, Pune batted out three boundary-free overs. With 30 balls remaining, they now needed 47.

End-overs experts squeeze out Pune

A half-controlled square-cut from Dhoni sped between backward point and short third man, and two balls later Smith reverse-swiped Krunal for six. Fourteen came off that over, and Rising Pune seemed to be back on track.

Bumrah and Malinga, though, still had three overs to bowl. Bumrah got Dhoni caught behind, denying him width for the cut, and closed out that over, the 17th, with two lbw appeals against Manoj Tiwary, the batsman unable to read his changes of pace and angle, coupled with a hint of reverse.

Smith managed to flick Malinga for four in the 18th, in between a string of unhittable yorkers, and launched Bumrah over long-off in the 19th, off the one ball in the over that was pitched short of the blockhole. When Tiwary shuffled across and whipped the first ball of the 20th over to the vacant square-leg boundary - Johnson had just lost an argument with Rohit to station a fielder there - the equation came down to 7 off 5.

Surely, that would do it. Johnson, though, hadn't had his say yet. Looking to hit him over extra-cover, Tiwary was undone by the slower ball, only managing to drag it round to long-on. Then Smith, having crossed over, timed an inside-out slice perfectly, but straight to sweeper cover.

With three balls left, Pune needed seven, with two new batsmen at the crease. Washington Sundar brought Christian on strike off the fourth ball, failing to make contact with a wide-ish yorker but managing to scamper a bye. Then Christian, slogging at another full slower one, was dropped by Hardik running forward from deep midwicket - he sprinted a second, and Pune needed four from the last ball.

The last ball of Rising Pune Supergiant's two years in the IPL. It wouldn't be the last ball they wanted.

RSBL Simi Singh earns Ireland call-up as McBrine dropped

Ireland have included uncapped allrounder Simi Singh in their squad for the triangular series involving Bangladesh and New Zealand.

He replaces offspinner Andy McBrine as the only change from the squad that was involved in the two one-day internationals against England.

Singh, 30, has been rewarded for impressive domestic and Ireland A form at the start of the season. He scored two half-centuries, including a 97, and took seven wickets for Ireland A on their recent tour of England and followed that with an unbeaten 70 for Leinster Lightning in the Inter-Provincial Limited-Over Cup.

"I've been impressed by his quality with both bat and ball," Ireland coach John Bracewell said. "He is an intelligent cricketer who can adapt to all situations depending on the match situation. He strikes the ball very cleanly, has good technique, and scores all round the wicket.

"His bowling is strong with subtle variations, mixing up his pace and he extracts good turn and bounce from the pitch."

Singh gained Ireland citizenship last month and spoke of the "honour" of being given the chance to represent the country.

"I'm absolutely delighted with my call up and looking forward to the matches," he said. "I came to Ireland as a teenager with a hope of wearing the green jersey one day and feel fortunate to have that honour now. I appreciate the support of my family and friends and also my club YMCA. This wonderful opportunity wouldn't have been possible without them.

"There's no doubt that I've been helped by strong performances for Leinster Lightning this past few seasons, and this campaign has started well with runs and wickets for Ireland Wolves. I'm so proud and grateful to get this opportunity - it'll be a great honour if I make my debut during this series."
Bracewell assured McBrine, who has played 22 ODIs, that he remained part of Ireland's plans for the future but felt he would benefit from domestic and Ireland A action.


"Andy is still very much in the selectors' minds, but we felt that it would be beneficial for him to play for the Wolves this week in the warm-up games against the Bangladesh and New Zealand XIs. He's a strong character and hopefully he'll respond positively with good displays this week."

Non-wide in Mumbai's final over stirs Rohit's emotions RSBL

Mumbai Indians needed 17 runs off the last over against Rising Pune Supergiant to complete their seventh straight win in IPL 2017, but their pursuit received a jolt on the first ball as Hardik Pandya holed out to deep extra cover. Their captain Rohit Sharma, though, had piloted Mumbai's chase up to that point and was intent on seeing things through. With one almighty swing at Jaydev Unadkat's slower ball, he brought the equation down to 11 off four balls.

Unadkat's next delivery was going to be another slower one, but having seen Rohit shuffle across the stumps, he pushed it wide. Rohit, on the other hand, realised that the ball was veering away from the guideline for wide deliveries, and left it alone. However, when umpire S Ravi didn't call it a wide, Rohit shrugged in disbelief, and remonstrated with Ravi even as the square-leg umpire A Nand Kishore intervened. With 11 needed off three balls now, Rohit miscued a slog and was caught-and-bowled for a 39-ball 58, and eventually Mumbai went down by three runs.

In the post-match media interaction, Harbhajan Singh and Ajinkya Rahane, representing Mumbai and Rising Pune respectively, had contrasting views on the legality of the contentious delivery. Neither player, however, felt Rohit's animated conversation with the umpire was a serious transgression.

"I think it was the right call," Rahane said. "Because, as a batsman when you move [across the stumps], that area outside [the off stump] goes to the bowler. Rohit's behaviour at that point was natural. As a captain, as a player, when the game is so close, it comes automatically; nobody does it deliberately. I don't think there was anything wrong with his behaviour, but the umpire's call was right too, for us.

"It happens on the field and remains on the field. In this format, in close games, this will happen in the future as well. You should respect the umpire's decision as well as whatever Rohit did that was completely natural."

Harbhajan also said Rohit was only checking with the umpire what the rule was. "He didn't shout at the umpire or ask why it wasn't given a wide," he said. "He just wanted to know where he should stand for the wide to be called and he was told that the amount he moves is the amount of margin the bowler gets."

While Harbhajan felt the ball was fairly wide off the guideline, he said the umpire's decision had to be respected. "I don't really know if it was actually a wide ball or not," he said. "I feel if both the legs of the batsmen move across the stumps, then the bowler should get the [benefit of the] margin. But, if you see, only one leg of the batsman went across, so I feel it should have been a wide. But, in the end, whatever is the umpire's decision we have to move on with it."

Harbhajan, though, didn't agree with the suggestion that the argument over the wide had led to a loss of momentum for Mumbai.

"I don't think momentum was lost, because Rohit was hitting the ball nicely, but [it was] unfortunate that he ended up hitting the [next] ball straight up in the air," he said. "Cricket is a game where anything is possible. Just before that he hit a big six and a similar sort of ball went up and he got out. At that point all you need to do as a batsman was see the ball and hit the ball, and Rohit was batting on 50-odd."

While Harbhajan admitted that the penultimate over, where Ben Stokes conceded only seven runs, was crucial, Rahane revealed the thinking behind giving Unadkat the ball in the last over. He said Unadkat was preferred to Shardul Thakur because of his relatively slower pace.

"I think after the 19th over when [Steven] Smith, Mahi bhai [MS Dhoni] and I were discussing, we talked about bowling Shardul or Jaydev," Rahane said. "But we opted to bowl Jaydev because Shardul has quite a bit of pace, and we wanted to take the pace off and not give the batsmen any in the last over.

"JD's pace comparatively is slower than Shardul and his slower ball could be more effective as the wicket was slow. We didn't want to give them any pace because Rohit was already set. One side [of the ground] was very short, so that was the plan for the last over."

The dismissals of Kieron Pollard and Hardik Pandya were also a result of smart thinking and understanding of angles. Rising Pune had three fielders in the V for Pollard - a long-off almost right behind the bowler in addition to a conventional long-off and long-on - and as many fielders on the bigger off-side boundary for Pandya.

"We knew Pollard doesn't play the lap sweep, so we wanted to keep two fielders straight - one right on the sightscreen and one slightly wider," Rahane said. "That worked for us. For Hardik, he likes to play over covers and the boundaries were bigger too, so that's why we brought square leg in and had three fielders on the line on the offside."

Kieran Powell recalled to West Indies Test squad RSBL

Leeward Islands batsman Kieran Powell is in line to play his first Test in nearly three years after being recalled to the West Indies squad for the first match against Pakistan at Sabina Park beginning on Friday. The uncapped batting pair of Vishaul Singh and Shimron Hetmyer have also joined Powell in the 13-man squad, after all three batsmen made runs in the warm-up game against Pakistan.

Marlon Samuels, Darren Bravo and Leon Johnson were dropped from the squad that toured the UAE for three Tests against Pakistan in October.

West Indies chairman of selectors Courtney Browne said, "We have a young Test squad, which was admirably led by Jason Holder during the last series and, though there are some noticeable absentees, we believe that the players will give a good account of themselves especially in their own backyard."

Powell, 27, last played Test cricket in 2014 and briefly quit cricket altogether not long afterward in a failed attempt to break into baseball in America. He returned to the West Indies domestic scene last summer in the Caribbean Premier League with St Kitts & Nevis Patriots, and then finished as the leading scorer in the Regional Super50 competition in February, with 513 runs in eight innings at 64.12. He earned a recall to the West Indies ODI team for the three-match series against England in March and was subsequently picked for the ODI series against Pakistan earlier this month.

Powell's form in the domestic four-day competition is not as solid as his one-day record this season, with 342 runs at 28.50 and just two half-centuries. However, he produced scores of 58 and 84 not out for the West Indies President's XI in the drawn three-day tour match against Pakistan that concluded on Tuesday.

"We are happy to be able to give a recall to Kieran Powell for one of the opening slots, although he did not have the best regional first-class season," Browne said. "He showed for the President's XI that his experience can add value to our team.

"West Indies cricket has invested heavily in him over the years and with the void of openers within the Caribbean, the panel felt a need to fast track him through our A-Team programme last year with a view in helping him to bridge that gap."

Singh, a 28-year old right-hand batsman from Guyana, similarly had an underwhelming season in the domestic four-day competition, with 317 runs at 26.41 and a best of 71. However, he was the third-highest scorer in the 2015-16 season with 712 runs at 50.85 and three centuries. Like Powell, he also produced a strong performance for the West Indies President's XI, making an unbeaten 135 in the first innings.

"Vishal has been one of the more consistent batsmen in the Regional 4-Day Tournament over the last few seasons and had a very good A-Team series against Sri Lanka last year," Browne said. "His hundred over the weekend for the WICB President's XI against the Pakistanis helped to fortify in our minds that he has a place in our squad. He gives us the option of a solid middle-order batsman around whom our more free-scoring players can bat."

Hetmyer, 20, captained West Indies to the 2016 Under-19 World Cup title in Bangladesh last year and had a promising campaign for Guyana in the four-day competition, scoring 496 runs at 38.15 including four half-centuries in 15 innings. He has just one first-class hundred in his 17-match career, but it came against Jamaica in the last match of the 2015-16 season to clinch the four-day title for Guyana.

The ascension of Hetmyer coincides with the continuing impasse between Bravo and the WICB. Bravo was the second-highest scorer for West Indies in the Test series against Pakistan in October, but had his match contract cancelled for criticising WICB President Dave Cameron on Twitter in November. Browne said in January that Bravo would not be considered for selection again until the dispute was settled.

Also dropped from the previous Test squad against Pakistan were Carlos Brathwaite and Jomel Warrican. Though he was part of the Test squad in the UAE, Brathwaite didn't play any of the matches and his last appearance in the format was against India in Antigua last July. He is currently at the IPL and West Indies coach Stuart Law said he had been left out of the ODI squad ahead of the Test series to work on improving his fitness and bowling.

WI squad for first Test
Jason Holder (capt), Devendra Bishoo, Jermaine Blackwood, Kraigg Brathwaite, Roston Chase, Miguel Cummins, Shane Dowrich (wk), Shannon Gabriel, Shimron Hetmyer, Shai Hope, Alzarri Joseph, Kieran Powell, Vishaul Singh

In: Shimron Hetmyer, Kieran Powell, Vishaul Singh

Out: Carlos Brathwaite, Darren Bravo, Leon Johnson, Marlon Samuels, Jomel Warrican

West Indies look to end 26-year RSBL

Big Picture

Pakistan ended a run of four consecutive ODI defeats with a thumping win in the second ODI against the West Indies. In doing so, they ensured that whatever the outcome of the deciding contest, they will remain in the eighth and final automatic qualification place for the 2019 World Cup at the end of the series. However, this alone is unlikely to satisfy their legion of fans, many of whom had been expecting the series against a significantly weakened West Indies side to be a cakewalk. Instead, it has become a bit of a dogfight, and anything less than a win for Pakistan to protect a proud 26-year unbeaten series record against their hosts would be seen as a failure.

West Indies will bemoan a failure to keep wickets in hand to give themselves a chance of chasing down Pakistan in the second ODI. Much of that was down to a tactically odd - poor, frankly - decision to take the attack to Pakistan's bowlers right from the start, and continue to do so in spite of losing wickets in clumps. As such, they were well out of the game before their innings reached the halfway mark, and meant that Ashley Nurse and Jason Holder's rearguards weren't going to do any more than restore respectability in defeat. The good news for them is they have one more chance to seal a series win, and because of that, the decider can safely be billed as the biggest limited-overs home game they will play this season.

Form guide

West Indies LWLLL (last five completed matches, most recent first)
Pakistan WLLLL

In the spotlight

Evin Lewis has been riding the wave of his 51-ball 91 in the third T20I, but he has endured a frustrating lack of consistency around that knock. He scored 29 runs in three ODIs against England earlier this season, and, aside from that 91, has only managed one international score above 15 this year - 47 in the first ODI against Pakistan. The 25-year old's talent is obvious to anyone who remembers his demolition of the Indian bowling attack in Florida last year, where a 49-ball century set his side up for a one-run win. He could be due another explosive innings, and with the series on the line, the third ODI wouldn't be a bad time to get going.

Sarfraz Ahmed got a fair bit of attention during the second ODI, despite a fairly quiet game both with bat and behind the gloves. What caught people's eyes (or more accurately, ears) were his bellowed instructions to fielders almost every single ball, and his hands-on approach with the bowlers, particularly Shadab Khan. Despite Pakistan looking set for a comfortable win, the skipper looked unhappy for most of the West Indies' innings, and much of the body language appeared, at least to an outsider, to be damagingly negative. The third match is a pressure game, and there will be plenty of focus on the newly appointed ODI captain to get the best out of his side, and whether he changes his approach in order to do that. It hasn't helped that the 29-year old has had a quiet period with the bat that has carried on from the PSL, and though it has slipped under the radar so far, it is unlikely to remain that way for too much longer.

Team news

Left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul has been added to the squad as cover for fast bowler Shannon Gabriel, who was seen clutching his hamstring during the second ODI and left the field after finishing his ten overs. Gabriel is scheduled to undergo treatment and will have a fitness test on the morning of the match. The hosts, however, do have a like-for-like replacement in Miguel Cummins, who may make his first appearance this series.

West Indies (possible): 1 Evin Lewis, 2 Chadwick Walton, 3 Kieran Powell, 4 Shai Hope (wk), 5 Jason Mohammad, 6 Jonathan Carter, 7 Jason Holder (capt), 8 Ashley Nurse, 9 Devendra Bishoo, 10 Alzarri Joseph, 11 Miguel Cummins/Shannon Gabriel

Pakistan may decide to stick with the side that levelled the series, especially since there were no glaringly poor performances. Junaid Khan, who came in for Wahab, bowled better than his figures suggested, and is expected to keep his place.

Pakistan (possible): 1 Ahmed Shehzad, 2 Kamran Akmal, 3 Babar Azam, 4 Mohammad Hafeez, 5 Shoaib Malik, 6 Sarfraz Ahmed (capt & wk), 7 Imad Wasim, 8 Shadab Khan, 9 Mohammad Amir, 10 Hasan Ali, 11 Junaid Khan

Pitch and conditions

All bets are off with the Providence Stadium's new pitch, which yielded two starkly different contests in just three days. However, there are showers expected for parts of the afternoon, and a curtailed contest is possible.

Stats and trivia

Pakistan's record in bilateral series deciders since 2003 has been quite poor. In 14 series-deciding final matches, they have lost 12 and won just 2 - both against Zimbabwe.
Babar Azam has the most runs (1306) after 25 ODIs by any batsman. The previous highest was by Jonathan Trott, who scored 1280 runs in the same period.

RSBL Watson to stand in as Royal Challengers captain

Australian allrounder Shane Watson has been named interim captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore.

The franchise has had to dig deep into its contingency plans over the past week. When it was learnt that the shoulder injury that Virat Kohli sustained would rule him out of the initial stages of the tournament, coach Daniel Vettori had said AB de Villiers would captain the team.

But de Villiers was ruled out of the opening game of the season, against Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 5. He had missed playing the final of the Momentum Cup, South Africa's premier one-day tournament, on Friday with a back injury, according to a tweet from CSA. And though he has joined the franchise in Bengaluru and was among the players who trained at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Monday, Vettori thought it was best to give de Villiers more time to recuperate.

"He still has some minor discomfort and we felt that couple of days off would be best before we have him back in action," Vettori said. "We hope to see him on the field in good form by 8th April match against Delhi Daredevils."

Meanwhile, 19-year old batsman Sarfaraz Khan sustained an injury to his leg at practice on Monday and had to be stretchered off the field. He is likely to miss IPL 2017.

Royal Challengers face defending champions Sunrisers in a rematch of last season's final on Wednesday. The team's chairman Amrit Thomas has said Kohli will be travelling with the team as a mentor.

RSBL First innings letdown put us in a spot

The Australian players may have enough time to reflect on the missed opportunities that - barring a miraculous performance on Tuesday morning- will likely cost them a series victory.

The game seemed finely balanced when Australia began their second innings, trailing India by 32 runs, but the batting line-up crumbled under a sustained assault of both short-pitched bowling and spin. Steven Smith's dismissal - he misjudged the length of a Bhuvneshwar Kumar delivery and was bowled - was the catalyst for a collapse that gave Australia a meagre lead of 105 to defend.

There was hope when Glenn Maxwell counter-attacked to score 45, but Australia lost five for 31, including his dismissal, with Matthew Wade running out of partners. By stumps, India had all 10 wickets in hand and now require a mere 87 runs to clinch the series and regain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

"Just stating the obvious, you could hear a pin drop in the dressing room," Australia batting coach Graeme Hick said. "A very disappointing day. There is always a chance until the final ball is bowled. But yeah, a hard day today. The boys are pretty down but they will give it a good crack in the morning and you never know. But it is a tough ask.

"You know when you come here, there is the danger of losing wickets in clumps. The hardest part is getting yourself in, getting that first half hour out of the way and then making sure you do the job. I think if I look back over this game and one or two others in the series, I will say we missed an opportunity and left some runs there in the first innings.

"From a 130 for 1 on the first day to only put 300 on the board... if we had another 100 runs, 150 runs in that first innings, then we are in the game tomorrow. So while today was very disappointing, it's not the only reason why we find ourselves in this position."

Australia stuttered right at the start in their second innings when David Warner, after being dropped for the second time in the match by Karun Nair at third slip, drove hard at Umesh Yadav in the fourth over and edged to Wriddhiman Saha. It capped off a disappointing tour for the opener - he has averaged 24.12 for the series, compared to his overall average of 47.42. He did little to change a growing perception that he struggles away from home.

"Obviously David will be very disappointed with his aggregate on tour," Hick said. "He is a very aggressive player, that's the way he likes to play and the way we like to him play. He was desperate to have a very big tour and to have a very big influence here.

"Whether he put himself under a bit too much pressure to do so, only he can answer that. He will reflect on it, as champions do, and feel and assess it himself. But without a doubt, he is one of our major players and you would have hoped for a little bit more from him but he was challenged.

"It is tough up front, [Ravindra] Jadeja into the rough, [R] Ashwin bowls really well at him. [They] certainly questioned him. That's the beauty of the game, it puts these challenges up between great players and makes it very interesting to watch. David will obviously be very disappointed with the way things have gone."

But the critical blow was the loss of Smith's wicket. The Australian captain has accumulated 499 runs in the series - more than anyone else - and his outstanding form has arguably papered over any weaknesses in Australia's relatively new-look top six. He had just dispatched consecutive Bhuvneshwar deliveries to the boundary before his dismissal and there was no middle-order stand to provide a Ranchi-style rearguard action.

"You'll look back, and in hindsight in this series, and say that we have been a bit reliant on him, but there again, you've had some great contributions and performances," Hick said. "Saving the game in the last Test, with [Peter] Handscomb and [Shaun] Marsh was as good as any hundred that Steve Smith scored, in those conditions and that pressure. Yeah, the scorecards will show that Steve Smith has had an amazing series and it has looked that way.

"He's just playing wonderful cricket at the moment. He asked me in the dressing room and I just said I think you're just playing too well. You're seeing the ball like a football and hitting it to all parts of the grounds. He's just playing beautifully.

"Steve Smith is a huge wicket for us, especially in the form he's in. Yeah, he'll be disappointed, as would anyone else. But yeah, very unfortunate for us because he's had a very good series. He's got seven hundreds in the last eight Tests against India. He's got a lot of runs against them. In some respect, you think they haven't worked out how to bowl to him yet. So that was a bit unfortunate."