Australian batter Steve Smith opined on his dismissal on Day 1 (June 11) of the World Test Championship (WTC) 2025 final against South Africa at the Lord’s Cricket Ground as well. Smith could not believe the way he was dismissed after scoring 66. He looked comfortable among all the Aussie batters on Day 1 and reached his fifty with a boundary, but nicked one to slip as he went for a cover drive and eventually got out.

Speaking at the presser after Day 1, he said, as quoted by cricket.com.au: “Don’t nick the part-time off-spinner. Down the slope. I’m still trying to fathom how I’ve done that. But yeah, don’t do that. And we’ve just got to play what’s in front of us (in the second innings). I felt in a nice place, I love batting here at Lord’s. I enjoyed my time out there while I was out there (but) left a few in the shed unfortunately.”

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Steve Smith also believes the wicket at the Lord’s offers a lot of seam movement with the new ball, though he expects spin to be helpful as the game goes on.

“I feel day one here it always offers a little bit of something, even when the colour of the wicket was quite white (like it was today). I’ve seen one-day (international) wickets that we’ve played on here where it’s been similar and it’s actually seamed quite a bit, particularly with the newer ball. It might take a bit more spin as the game wears on, it’s pretty dry. The seam movement might go down as the game goes on as well, so I think the bounce is going to be variable throughout, as we’ve seen already on day one,” Steve Smith concluded.