Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting commented on the verbal clash between England pacer Jofra Archer and Australian captain Steve Smith during the second Ashes Test, stating that Archer embarrassed
himself by not delivering the necessary pace and aggression earlier in the match.
On Day 4 of the day-night Test, Archer bowled a searing short ball to Smith, who dispatched it to the boundary with an impressive pull shot. The following delivery was also short, and Smith attempted to lift it over the slip cordon, prompting Archer to direct some verbal barbs at the Aussie skipper.
Archer was picked up on the stump mic, saying, “Likes to play shots when there’s not much on the scoreboard.” It lit a fuse under Smith who returned serve, the stump microphone picking up the exchange. “You bowl fast when there’s nothing going on champion,” Smith said.
‘Embarrassed Himself’
Ponting, commentating during the match, stated that Archer had “embarrassed himself” and his team.
“When I ‘championed’ him, I could actually hear what Steve Smith had said to him in the stump mic. Smithy said champion, and then that’s just what came out of my mouth, but it just got me going and got the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. There haven’t been many games that I’ve commentated that I wish I was back playing again. But I wish I was out there the other night as part of that, because that’s what you miss and that’s what it’s all about,” Ponting was quoted as saying on SEN.
“But look, for Jofra, he just embarrassed himself, and he embarrassed his team the other night, that’s what I make of that. To bowl his fastest spell ever in Test cricket, when Australia’s chasing 60… it (the fast spell) has been there the whole time, it’s been up his sleeve, and England have needed him to do it, and he hasn’t been willing to do it.
“Day 3, when they needed him to do it, he rocks up with his pillow under his arm, and that was always going to be a bad day for England from that moment. As soon as anyone saw that it was going to be ‘Okay, there’s their mindset for the day.
“They’re just going to rock up and Australia’s going to fall over and we’ll bowl them out’. Well, that doesn’t happen against Australia, it doesn’t happen in Ashes cricket,” he added.
(With inputs from Agencies)
