Innovation is key in any form of cricket that you may play and we saw some insane bit of innovation today in the 2023 Border Gavaskar Trophy. India took the lead in the 4th Test and Virat Kohli was batting on 180+ when the last batsman came in, in the form of Mohammed Shami, with no point left in just pushing the ball around or defending deliveries.
There were runs for the taking with the Australians clearly very tired on the field, but the Australian captain decided to think out of the box, doing something we’ve not really seen in any format of cricket before. Smith placed 7 players on the boundary initially, with 5 of them on the leg-side. The idea was to ensure Kohli couldn’t go for the big hits, knowing he won’t want to take the singles either.
Steve Smith places 9 fielders on the boundary
Then, Smith turned it up a notch by placing 9 fielders on the boundary, with only the bowler and wicket-keeper being within the 30-yard circle. Eventually, it did work for him as Kohli had no other option but to do something different. After a super patient knock, Kohli pulled out the reverse sweep, to no avail. You can also follow the game with cricket live scores and updates only on FlashScore.
Then, he decided to give himself a couple of chances to clear the field. The first attempt led to a drop from Travis Head at wide long-on and the second one saw him holing out to deep mid-wicket. Steve Smith has always known to be different in his ways, whether with the bat or with his captaincy. Once again, it was on display today as his tactics saw Kohli being dismissed for 186(364).
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It was an unfortunate end to Kohli’s innings as he missed out on a double hundred, and this will be one of the most crucial ones of his career. He ended 14 runs short of a double hundred, getting to the 3-figure mark for the first time in Test cricket after 3 years and 3 months. And only this piece of brilliance from Steve Smith could’ve dismissed him.
" World's " The Best Captain's field set-up for the best batsman! #SteveSmith #kohli #BGT2023 pic.twitter.com/F2vBnXaMg9
— sampathkumar_Rajendran (@sampath_rsk) March 12, 2023
Man I am just frustrated with the Australian field placement by Steve Smith as an ICT fan.
Just not allowing runs or boundaries #INDvAUS #SteveSmith #ViratKohli𓃵 pic.twitter.com/RWGA9cHaTy— Santosh Kumar Amara (@santosh_amara) March 12, 2023
Many users on Twitter applauded this move from Steve Smith, one even saying it’s a field you’d set in the video game ‘EA Sports Cricket’. He placed the field to ensure there were no added runs being given away for the last wicket partnership, and he actually went on to accomplish what he set out to do. See some more reactions from Twitter users:
gotta give it to steve smith man what an absolute clinical field placement. bro said you are not getting a single run from me. pic.twitter.com/FNGs3Z8FEO
— vidhu (@enthuaa) March 12, 2023
Just look at the field set by @stevesmith49 for @imVkohli .
Just, Steve Smith things! All players on the boundary line, we often don't see such kind of field🤌 pic.twitter.com/E33N5IPcii
— Kabir Anand (@Kabiranand9307) March 12, 2023
India finally ended on 571/9 which was counted as all out since Shreyas Iyer was injured and couldn’t come out to bat. They had a lead of 91 and suddenly, there was a slight chance for a result in favour of India. They had a few minutes to bowl to Australia at the end of Day 4, but they couldn’t get wickets like they would’ve been looking for, with the visitors ending with 3/0 after 6 overs.
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