Sydney Sixers’ aggressive batsman Steve Smith opened up about the tension he had with Babar Azam during the century partnership against Sydney Thunder at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) on Friday.
The first over of the Power Surge led to controversy as Smith denied Baber a run to take the two-over batting powerplay available after the tenth over in the PBL.
After three dot balls from Chris Green in the 11th over, Baber pushed the final delivery to long-on, but Smith indicated he wanted to take the surge himself. Then, Babur scored 47 runs off 38 balls and Smith scored 58 runs off 28 balls.
The result seemed to frustrate Babur, who showed visible disappointment when the pair met mid-pitch briefly between overs.
Smith then hit four consecutive sixes in the 12th over of Ryan Hadley’s 32-run stand – the most expensive over in BBL history.
Despite initially being reluctant to go for the second run off the last ball, Smith eventually gave Baber a strike in the 13th over.
The right-handed batsman was dismissed on the very first ball, heaving on his stumps and leaving angrily, hitting the boundary marker with his bat.
Speaking during the post-match presentation, Smith explained his tactics.
“We talked about ten overs and they (captain and coach) said take the surge straight away,” Smith told Channel 7.
“I said, ‘No, give me an over. I want to hit a short boundary. I don’t want to screw up the first over. I’ll try to get 30 in that over’. (I) think we got 32, so that was a good result. I was really happy that Babar got that single back.
Overall this season, the 31-year-old has scored 201 runs at an average of 28.71 with a strike rate of 107.48.
Friday’s events came shortly after Muhammad Rizwan was retired for the Melbourne Renegades against the Thunder earlier in the week.
When Rizwan scored 26 off 23 balls, captain Will Sutherland signaled him to retire on the boundary and was sent in to replace him. Rizwan was then run out when one run behind.