Australia's modern day great Steve Smith called time on his ODI career after the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 semifinal loss to India on March 4 in Dubai. Smith was the top-scorer for Australia in the knockout match scoring 73 runs from 96 balls. He wasn't troubled by Indian bowlers once set and the partnership between him and Alex Carey was causing a shift in momentum. However, Smith in an attempt to attack Mohammed Shami missed a full toss and got bowled. After the four-wicket loss, Smith blamed himself for the loss.
"I missed a full toss. It wasn't ideal," Smith said in the post-match press conference.
"My plan was to try and put the seamers under a bit more pressure, and just rotate the spin. But I didn't do it very well. I lost my wicket at probably a crucial stage. Had I batted a little deeper, we could have potentially got up to near 300 or something. Alex was batting really nicely at the other end. It was a disappointing time to get out, but that's the game sometimes."
Smith rues lack of partnerships
After Smith's wicket in the 37th over, Glenn Maxwell could not make an impact and was dismissed for a single-digit score by Axar Patel. Carey strung together partnerships with the lower-order batters and scored 61 runs from 57 deliveries. He dominated the proceedings until Shreyas Iyer's direct hit caught him short of the crease in the 48th over of the innings. Australia were bowled out for 264 in 49.3 overs.
Smith said that they kept on losing wickets at crucial stages which prevented them from reaching the 300-run mark which would have been a tough target for India to chase down. He rued the lack of partnerships in the innings after he won the toss and opted to bat first.
"I think we had our opportunities throughout to post something up above 300. We were probably just that one wicket down too many, at a few stages throughout the innings. If we extended one of those partnerships a little bit we're probably getting up to 290 to 300 and we're putting a bit of pressure on the scoreboard," Smith said
"The square block as a whole, I think, has seen a lot of cricket over the last couple of months. We can see it's pretty tired and that's probably the reason why we haven't seen a score above 300 in the tournament here. So far so we did a reasonable job, but we probably just lacked a couple of those partnerships just dragging out a little bit further."
Smith to continue playing domestic cricket
Smith announced his retirement from ODI cricket hours after the Champions Trophy 2025 exit. He clarified that his priority remains Test cricket. In addition, he seems to be hopeful of return to T20I cricket on the back of performances in the Big Bash League (BBL) 2024-25.
