CRICKET – AUSTRALIA batter Steve Smith expects spin to play a significant role in this week’s World Test Championship final at Lord’s as London basks in dry weather ahead of today’s start.
Australia defend their title against a South African side making a first appearance in the final on what could be dryer than usual pitch at Lord’s and where the seam attacks are expected to dominate.
“I think spin will play a big part, particularly as the game wears on,” Smith told a Press conference on Monday.
“We’ve only been here a week, but I think it’s been pretty dry start to the season over here. There hasn’t there been too much rain, which is rare for England.
“It does look like quite a dry surface and I think the footmarks will definitely come into play as the game wears on.”
Smith, who is expected to bat at number four, has enjoyed success at Lord’s with a double century in the Ashes a decade ago and another ton against England two years ago.
“It takes a little bit of time getting used to the slope on the one end,” he said. “You feel like you’re falling over a little bit while at the other end you feel quite tall.
“It takes a couple of deliveries just to get used to that from both ends. I think each time you play out here, you certainly get value for your shots, particularly hitting the ball down the hill. It races away, so it can be a nice wicket to bat on as we’ve seen over the years as well.”
Conditions, however, can change quickly in England.
“If there’s a bit of cloud about and the balls swing around, it can get tricky,” Smith said. “Batting on this surface is about just summing it up and playing what’s in front of you and being able to adapt accordingly.”
Australia have not had much practice in the game’s first-class format over recent months.
“All the batters feel like they’re in a good place, so now just excited to go out and play. Lord’s is a place we traditionally played pretty good cricket, so we’re excited about the prospect of coming up against South Africa,” Smith added.
Meanwhile, South Africa are quietly confident of an upset victory in the World Test Championship final with coach Shukri Conrad warning defending champions Australia not to underestimate his inexperienced batting line-up.
South Africa go into the five-day clash as underdogs but Conrad struck an optimistic tone at a Press conference.
“The inexperience is very apparent in terms of the number of tests played and their place in the ICC rankings. So, I think it’s pretty normal that the chat is all about the bowlers when you’ve got guys like Kagiso Rabada, ranked two in the world, and Marco (Jansen) and (spinner) Keshav (Maharaj),” he said.
“But I think there’s a quiet confidence among the batting group. They got a lot of confidence, with hundreds for different players at different stages. So yeah, while there might not be superstar names among them, I think as a collective we’re pretty confident.”
South Africa’s path to the WTC final has been questioned, given they played only 12 tests over the two-year 2023-25 cycle while Australia played seven more. South Africa also did not meet Australia or England and booked their place with series wins over Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and West Indies.
“Enough has been spoken about that to be honest,” Conrad said. “We are here and that’s all that matters and now we get a chance to walk away as the world test champions, playing Australia. It doesn’t get any bigger than that.”
“We are quietly confident going into this game that we can pull one over them. We’re a confident bunch, we play well as a unit, and if there are any vulnerabilities among them (Australia), I’m sure we’d be able to exploit that,” Conrad added.
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