Former England skipper Michael Vaughan on Monday criticised Australia's Steve Smith after the latter was seen scuffing up the area around the batting crease on day five of the third Test between India and Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground. The former player said it was a "very, very poor" act from Smith.
"This is very very poor from Steve smith!" Vaughan tweeted.
Smith faced severe backlash from the fans as well as on social media. During the first session, the stump cams recorded members of the Australian side coming to the crease. Smith appeared to be using his feet to scuff the marks left by wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant. It then forced the batsman to take his guard all over again, reported Fox Sports.
Sharing the video of the incident, former India batsman Virender Sehwag wrote: "Tried all tricks including Steve Smith trying to remove Pant's batting guard marks from the crease. Par kuch kaam na aaya. Khaaya peeya kuch nahi, glass toda barana. But I am so so proud of the effort of the Indian team today. Seena chonda ho gaya yaar."
The Ajinkya Rahane-led team put up an inspired show against Australia in the third Test to eke out a draw. Ashwin and Hanuma Vihari batted out 258 balls to help India walk away with an epic draw against Australia and head into the final Test at the Gabba, with the series level at 1-1.
Batting out 2.5 hours with a fierce home team throwing everything it had up its sleeves is no mean feat. But the Indian duo of Vihari and R Ashwin stood ground and managed to do just that. Batting out 131 overs -- the most India have batted in the fourth innings of a Test since 1980 -- showed exactly what Ashwin meant when he spoke about playing like true warriors at the end of the fourth day's play at the SCG.
( With inputs from ANI )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor
