AUS v IND 2020-21: "Once a cheat, always a cheat" - Fans slam Smith for wiping off Pant's batting guard

Steve Smith was caught rubbing off the batting guard marked by Rishabh Pant by stump cam.

Screengrab of Steve Smith scrubbing the guard off

Team India got a breath of fresh air on the morning of Day 5 at the Sydney Cricket Ground in the form of Rishabh Pant. The youngster scratched off 97 runs off the mountainous target in just 118 deliveries and raised some hopes of an Indian victory before getting out after Lunch.

While his innings was certainly a highlight of the day, Steve Smith stole some limelight, albeit for the wrong reasons. After the first one and an hour of play in the first session of the day, the players took a drink break.

Before the batsmen arrived at the batting crease to resume play, the stump camera caught Smith, who was shadow batting, was seen scrubbing off the batting guard marked by Rishabh Pant in front of the stumps.

This led to Pant asking for his guard again from the umpire, an inconvenience caused by Smith's deliberately wiping off the old guard, something he shouldn't be doing.

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Here's a video:

This certainly didn't go down well with the fans, who pounced on the cricketer for his unsportsmanlike activity and they even called him a 'cheat', again.

Here are some of the tweets from angry fans:

 
 

By Sameer Deodhar - 11 Jan, 2021

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