Whenever there’s a big tournament, there’s bound to be some controversy. This time, in the Champions Trophy, the big question was whether India had an unfair advantage by playing all their matches in Dubai. Former cricketers and fans have been debating it non-stop, and almost every press conference has touched on the issue.
After India’s dominant four-wicket win over Australia in the semi-final, their head coach Gautam Gambhir was quick to dismiss the idea of any unfair benefit. And Australia’s captain, Steve Smith, also wasn’t convinced that India had an edge just because of the venue.
“I’m not buying into it,” Smith said in the post-match press conference. “India played really good cricket here. The conditions suited their spinners and seamers, but they still had to perform. They outplayed us, and they deserved the victory.”
Australia’s Missed Opportunity with the Bat
Australia had a great start after winning the toss and choosing to bat first. Travis Head played aggressively, scoring 39 off 33 balls, and for a while, it looked like the team could post a big total. A score of 290-300 seemed possible. But India’s bowlers kept breaking partnerships at crucial moments, stopping Australia from building any real momentum.
Smith admitted that if they had managed to hold on to at least one strong partnership, they could have reached a bigger total instead of being restricted to 264.
“I think we made the right decision at the toss,” he said. “We had our chances to put up 300, but we kept losing wickets at key moments. If one of our partnerships had lasted longer, we could have put more pressure on India.”
Another big challenge was the pitch itself. According to Smith, it wasn’t the easiest surface to bat on. The square block had seen a lot of cricket in recent months, making it a bit worn out. That’s probably why no team had managed to score above 300 in this tournament.
“It was a pretty tired pitch,” he explained. “We did a decent job, but we needed those partnerships to stretch further to get us closer to 300.”
Fielding Errors Cost Australia Big Time
Defending 264 was never going to be easy, but Australia didn’t help their own cause by missing crucial catches. In the powerplay, India’s captain Rohit Sharma was given two lifelines as Australia dropped his catches. Then, in the 26th over, Glenn Maxwell had a golden chance to dismiss Virat Kohli but couldn’t hold onto a difficult one-handed catch. Kohli went on to add 30 more runs after that, making Australia pay for the mistake.
Smith acknowledged that those missed chances made a huge difference.
“When you’re trying to squeeze the game and defend a low total, you have to take those chances,” he said. “We dropped a couple of key catches, and that hurt us. But that’s cricket—no one drops a catch on purpose.”
India’s Smart Cricket Sealed the Win
Despite the controversy around India playing all their matches in Dubai, Smith made it clear that their victory was well-earned. Their bowlers kept Australia in check, their batters took full advantage of Australia’s mistakes, and overall, they simply played better cricket.
“They played well, outplayed us, and deserved the win,” Smith admitted.
With this victory, India stormed into the final, looking like strong contenders for the trophy. As for Australia, they’ll have to go back to the drawing board, figuring out how to bounce back stronger in future tournaments.
