Smith's comment came after Australia lost to India in the Champions Trophy semi-final.
Australia skipper Steve Smith played down the venue advantage talk after India defeated them by four wickets in the semi-final of the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy in Dubai on Tuesday (March 4).
The Dubai International Cricket Stadium is playing host to India's Champions Trophy matches as the BCCI refused to send its team to Pakistan due to security concerns. As a result, the ICC adopted a hybrid model, allowing the Men in Blue to play all of their matches in a neutral venue.
The Rohit Sharma-led side dominated the group-stage, defeating Bangladesh, Pakistan and New Zealand comprehensively. Amid the dominance, several former and current cricketers pointed out that India are getting undue advantage by playing at just one venue.
After India qualified for the final, head coach Gautam Gambhir dismissed the claims of his side receiving an unfair advantage of playing their games in Dubai.
Even Smith didn't buy into the claims as he felt India deserved to win, considering they had completely "outplayed" them.
"Yeah, look, I'm not buying into it. I think it is what it is. India obviously played some really good cricket here. The surface kind of suits their style with the spinners that they've got and the seamers that they have at their disposal for a wicket like that. They played well, they outplayed us, and they deserve the victory," Smith said in the post-match press conference.
Opting to bat first, Australia posted 264/10 on the board in 49.3 overs against India. While skipper Steve Smith (73) and Alex Carey (61) scored half-centuries, other batters failed to rise to the occasion.
While the seam-bowling duo of Mohammad Shami (3-48 in 10 overs) and Hardik Pandya (1-40 in 5.3 overs) took four wickets between them, the spin trio of Varun Chakaravarthy (2-49 in 10 overs), Ravindra Jadeja (2-40 in 8 overs) and Axar Patel (1-43 in 8 overs) shared five scalps among them.
In reply, India lost Shubman Gill (8) cheaply while captain Rohit Sharma (28) failed to convert his start into a significant score. However, Virat Kohli once stepped up in a knockout fixture. He added 91 runs for the third wicket with Shreyas Iyer. Adam Zampa broke the partnership by removing Iyer for 45, but Kohli held the one end firmly.
The star batter then stitched 44 runs for the fourth wicket with Axar Patel and followed it with another crucial 47-run stand with KL Rahul to put India on the verge of victory. While Kohli got out in the 43rd over after scoring 84 off 98 balls, Hardik Pandya’s blazing cameo (28 off 24 balls) and Rahul’s unbeaten 42* off 34 balls ensured India got over the line with 11 deliveries to spare.
"Yeah, I think the toss was the right decision. I think we had our opportunities throughout to post something above 300. We were probably just that one wicket down too many at a few stages throughout the innings. If we extended one of those partnerships a little bit, we're probably getting up 290 - 300, and we're putting a bit of pressure on the scoreboard," Smith stated.
"So, it's clearly not the easiest wicket to bat on. The square block as a whole I think has seen a lot of cricket over the last couple of months. We can see it's pretty tired and that's probably the reason why we haven't seen a score above 300 in the tournament here so far. So we did a reasonable job but we probably just lacked a couple of those partnerships just dragging out a little bit further to get us up somewhere near 300 or just above," he added.
Australia gave Rohit a couple lifelines by dropping catches in the powerplay. In the 26th over, Glenn Maxwell spilled Kohli’s catch when the latter was on 54.
"We dropped a couple of chances and I think when you're trying to squeeze the game and you're trying to build a lot of pressure, you need to take those chances when you've got 260 on the board. But that's the game, it happens. No one means to drop a catch. It's part of the game," Smith remarked.
(With ANI Inputs)