Nice to score some runs when you aren't feeling good: Steve Smith

Steve Smith made a return to competitive cricket when his team Toronto Nationals, led by Darren Sammy, locked horns with the Vancouver Knights in the inaugural match of the Global Canada T20 league. The Australian cricket is in the middle of a rough phase and Smith is currently serving a one-year suspension meted out to him by Cricket Australia (CA) owing to the ball-tampering scandal in March.

In yesterday’s match, he was clinical in his approach. The Sydney-born batsman notched a knock of 61 runs from 41 balls and the same turned out to be crucial in his side’s journey to chase down a mammoth target of 228 set by the Knights, captained by Chris Gayle. Anton Devcich played a masterful knock of 92 runs in 44 balls, which took the sting out of Gayle and Co.

After the match, Smith attended a press conference where he put forth the mindset of their batsmen while tracing down the colossal score. He also praised Andre Russell and Evin Lewis for their exhibition of power-hitting. The Aussie also admitted that his drop-catch of Lewis and the no-ball from Naveed Ahmed to Russell in the 17th over turned out to be a costly one for the Nationals.

“I was a little bit nervous today”- Smith

“I’ll go back to before the game first. Looked at the wicket and I thought, this is going to be interesting. Maybe 150-160 was going to be a good score but Evin Lewis and Andre Russell, they hit the bat as far as anyone in the world. We gave them a bit of luck, I dropped a catch and that no-ball was quite costly

We could’ve restricted them to a few less than 228, but we thought that a few partnerships, the boundaries were short, the pitch played so much better than we expected. Devcich was magnificent, he struck the ball really well from ball one and it was nice to put on a partnership with him,” he added.

The last few months haven’t been joyful for Smith as it was his first match since the infamous Cape Town match from where the misery began for him. He also talked about his state of mind before taking the field in the last match. However, he was happy to be back, scoring runs amidst the bad times.

“I normally don’t get really nervous before I play, but I’ll be honest that I was a little bit nervous today. Three months off and I haven’t hit that many balls back home and I only had a couple of nets. I got here, haven’t had a hit on turf, hit indoors yesterday and felt very good.

Had a bit of luck today, but it didn’t feel as good as it probably ever have, but it’s nice to score some runs when you aren’t feeling good. Hopefully some positive signs,” the 29-year-old added.

Here’s the full press conference

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