Australian skipper Steve Smith has landed in a controversy after losing the third ODI against England at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG). On January 21, Smith was spotted wiping his lips and then the ball during fielding, leading to ball tampering allegations. However, Smith denied all the allegations and stated that ‘there was nothing in it’.
As per several media reports, there had been suggestions that the Australian skipper had applied lip balm on the ball. The incident happened during the 37th over of the English innings. Later, in the post-match press conference, Smith answered every question being raised about the incident and said,
“It was all spit. People said something about the lip balm. If you look at my lips, they are pretty dry. I certainly didn’t have any of that on. It’s just the way I get some spit into the side of my mouth and get some of it on the ball. There was nothing in it.”
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Here’s the video:
Steve Smith responds to questions raised over whether he used lip balm to polish the ball in Sunday’s #AUSvENG ODI pic.twitter.com/QHxbN6fqJA
— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) January 21, 2018
After losing the Ashes series by 4-0, the English men came back strong and rammed the Aussies in the ODI series. Eoin Morgan & Co. are now leading the 5-match series by 3-0 and have won the series after defeating the home team by 16 runs at the SCG on Sunday, January 21.
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A magnificent unbeaten hundred from Jos Buttler (100*) and a fifty from Alex Hales (53*) helped the visitors to take the team total beyond the 300 mark. The target was 303 for Australia which they failed to chase down. The Aussies ended up scoring 286 runs in 50 overs after losing 6 wickets.
The next match is scheduled to be played at the Adelaide Oval on January 26.
