"They Had The Wicket To...": Steve Smith's Blunt 'Spinners Remark' After Australia's Loss vs India

Bowled out for 199 in their high-profile World Cup opener, Steve Smith admitted that the Australian batters failed to get on top of the Indian spinners on a tacky Chepauk surface. Opting to bat first in a surprise move, Australia were sitting pretty at 110 for two before left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja (3/38) triggered a collapse with his triple blows in the middle overs. The total proved to be too less as India romped home with six wickets and nine overs to spare for a fine start to the tournament.

"All their spinners bowled really nicely. Obviously, they had the wicket to suit as well," Smith said in the mixed zone.

"It was challenging against the spin since they are all very quality spinners. They really worked well together, and we struggled to get on top of them." Besides Jadeja, wrist spinner Kuldeep picked up two wickets while there was one wicket for Ravichandran Ashwin.

In reply, India rode on Virat Kohli's 85 and KL Rahul's unbeaten 97-run knock to complete the task in 41.2 overs, having recovered from 2/3 in the second over.

Smith credited Kohli and Rahul for their batting.

"It was game on. Unfortunately, we couldn't take it. Virat and Rahul played with a lot of composure. They played really smart cricket," Smith told reporters.

"It wasn't a kind of wicket where you could just muscle it and hit boundaries everywhere. Since they were chasing only 200, they could take a bit more time, just play themselves in, which they probably needed to after being three down early on and build a partnership that they did really well." Talking about the challenge, he said that it was a tricky wicket to bat on, while bowling under the lights with the dew around made it tough.

"It was a challenging wicket, and we also saw a