Momentum with Australia, says Smith
Ranchi: Even as Steve Smith claimed momentum was with the Australian team after they managed to pull-off a hard-fought draw, Virat Kohli said it was all about looking at positives. Resuming from their overnight score of 23/2, Australia were four for 63 at one stage before Shaun Marsh and Peter Handscomb combined to put on a 124-run stand spread over 374 deliveries to save the match for the tourists. “If there's anything called momentum it's with us at the moment,” said Smith. “India coming today would have expected to bowl us out. I’m sure they're hurting a little bit in their change room. If there's anything with momentum in cricket, it's probably on our side at the minute. It’s 1-1 all and we have decider in Dharamsala which is really exciting,” remarked the Aussie skipper. Kohli was more balanced in his views as he broke down the progress of the third Test. “In the second innings, they batted well so it ended in a draw,” he began. “But from where we were in the first innings — chasing 450 we were 320-odd for 6 -- to make 600 was a very difficult task. We put ourselves in a position to win, so we feel it was a very good effort from us to get into a winning situation. But then again, if you are playing against the No 2 side, you will expect that they will come out and fight, not just roll over. “Everyone has his point of view. We will look at our positives and we are happy with where we brought the game to after just one innings. We didn’t need to bat in the second innings. But they had to play for a draw. Like I said, they will look at their positives and we will look at our positives and move forward. There is still one match to go, both will give it their best,” he explained. — PTI
