Steve Smith Reveals Details of Tense Moments with Babar Azam in Sixers’ Power Charge

Sydney Sixers defeated Sydney Thunder in the latest BBL 15 match, as Steve Smith scored a stunning century in the second innings of the match. Besides a commanding performance by the Sixers, an interesting, tense moment between Steve Smith and Babar Azam caught the attention of fans during the second innings. It was definitely not a heated moment, but rather a disagreement between the two batters over the preference of taking the strike during the BBL Power Surge over.

The incident happened at the end of the 11th over when Steve Smith denied Babar Azam a single off the last ball. Babar looked visibly unhappy with this decision; however, the game moved on, and Steve Smith smashed 32 runs singlehandedly in the next over.

Speaking about the incident after the match, Steve Smith said that the plan was to hit quick runs in the first Power Surge over, which is why he decided to take the strike and targeted the short boundary.

"We spoke at the ten-over mark, and they [the captain and coach] said take the surge straightaway. I was like, 'Nah, give it one over. I want to hit the short boundary. I don't want to screw up the first over. I'll try to get 30 off that over'. [I] think we got 32, so it was a good result. Not sure Babar was too happy with me knocking back that single," said Steve Smith.

When Mitchell Starc was asked about his opinion on the incident, he said it was nothing too serious. He praised the batting prowess of both players, saying that they understand the match situations very well, as both have played a lot of international cricket.

"[They are] two guys that have played a lot of international cricket, two guys that love performing, and that was one of our best partnerships up the top. Hopefully, that continues over the next 48 hours on a wicket that seems to be pretty good for batting," said Mitchell Starc.