Steve Smith starred with bat and ball for Barbados Tridents in a narrow two-run win against Jamaica Tallawahs. Smith, the former Australia captain, followed up his 63 off 44 balls with 2/19 in three overs in Tridents’ Caribbean Premier League 2018 match at Lauderhill on Wednesday, 22 August.
Coming in during the Powerplay with his team 37/2 in the sixth, which quickly became 39/3, Smith stuck around till the last over. It took his team to 156/6.
He combined with Shai Hope (43 off 35) to add 103 for the fifth wicket. His knock included five fours and three sixes, before he became Andre Russell’s second wicket of the day.
The Tallawahs were cruising in their chase, with the openers Glenn Phillips (36 off 24) and Johnson Charles (42 off 32) having got 80 in nine overs, when Smith got the breakthrough.
In his first over, he was struck for a six, but he came back to remove both set batsmen in his next. Charles was caught at the boundary and Phillips given out caught behind. Smith could have had a third wicket but Kennar Lewis was dropped at long-on.
Smith, who began his career as a leg-spinner before he became one of the top batsmen in the world, said his captain Jason Holder had told him he might be called upon to send down a few.
“I’ve sort of changed a few things up [in my bowling],” he said. “I’m trying to model my action on Shahid Afridi, pushing it through and try to bowl fast into the wicket. Fortunately it worked tonight.
“He [Afridi] has been a terrific leg-spinner. I can’t get the momentum into the ball [with my usual action] as I’m growing older. Hopefully I don’t have to bowl too much!”
The Russell-led Tallawahs were left to rue a strategy gone wrong. Ross Taylor and David Miller struggled to finish the game, even as the likes of Russell himself were left waiting for a chance to bat. With 11 left to get off the last over, they only got to 154/3.
“We dropped a heap of catches. Usually, you don’t win games when you do that,” pointed out Smith. “But perhaps they got their strategy wrong – Russell didn’t bat.”
