Australia are playing their first warm-up game against the hosts today. David Warner and Steve Smith, who were involved in ball-tampering, were booed by the crowd when they came in to bat.

England all-rounder Moeen Ali had stated a few days back that the English crowd should not get personal with Warner and Smith. He believes that humans make mistakes, and the ball-tampering incident was their mistake. They have served the punishment and now must be respected as players.

However, the crowd was not supportive to Ali. Warner came in to open the innings after being put in to bat and was not welcomed gleefully by the English fans in the Rose Bowl. A fan shouted, “Get off Warner, you cheat!”

It did not seem to bother the southpaw as he looked in good touch as he scored 43 runs off 55 balls before being caught by Bairstow off Plunkett. There was a huge cheer when he got out. But, the cheer then turned into more boos as Steve Smith walked into bat after Warner’s dismissal.

Smith had similar fate and some fans were spotted chanting, “Cheat, cheat, cheat!” There was also some support for him as one Aussie fan screamed, “Get ‘em Stevie!”.

It looked as if the boos made Smith more determined as he went on to score a brilliant century. He got to his hundred off just 94 balls. He completed his innings of 116 off 102 balls to help Australia set a target of 298 for England.

(With AFP inputs)