One Six Turned Around The MCG Test? Steve Smith Explains The Crazy Ashes Twist

One Six Turned Around The MCG Test? Steve Smith Explains The Crazy Ashes Twist Steve Smith explains how one six from Zak Crawley changed the entire MCG Test, helping England avoid whitewash in the Ashes. Share Your Feedback Choose News18 on Google Australia’s stand-in captain Steve Smith said the fourth Ashes Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) turned in England’s favor by one delivery - a six from Zak Crawley early in the fourth innings. Smith felt that the ball’s bounce and impact on an LED advertisement board damaged it in a way that reduced its seam movement off the pitch for Australia’s pacers, rendering their best deliveries less effective. England were chasing 175 in the fourth innings - an otherwise gettable target that looked multiple times that because of the spicy nature of the MCG pitch. Their much-criticized BazBall methodology was just the right thing to do here, as defensive shots were not working at all. They batted at a brisk run-rate of 5.5 runs/over to shoot the target down in 32.2 overs with four wickets to spare, to make the series scoreline 3-1. Recommended Stories England have also spoken before about how blunting the new ball with boundaries early on is part of their tactic, and even Smith admitted how well it turned out here. “I thought the way they started with the bat was good," Smith said. “They were really aggressive, tried to break the back of a reasonably small chase on a tricky wicket and they got off to a bit of a flyer. A couple of their heavy blows softened our seam quite a bit and probably didn’t offer quite as much as it had for the rest of the game after that, so credit to them. They obviously played some shots where they hit the ball pretty hard and then I think Zak hit one into the LED boards, and that definitely softened the seam, no doubt about it. But credit to them for doing that." “I think [the ball] did a fair amount for the whole game - [it was] just probably when the ball got softened from a few lusty blows from their top order today, where it started to go a little bit less, potentially. Without that, it [the pitch] was still going to offer plenty," he added. The fifth Test will be played from January 4-8 in Sydney. Click here to add News18 as your preferred news source on Google. Cricket News , Live Cricket Scores , and trending updates, along with top stories across Sports News , Football News , WWE News , and other Sporting Events . Follow News18 on Google . Join the fun, play games on News18 . Download the News18 App to stay updated! Terms of Use and Privacy Policy .

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