Pat Cummins has kicked off his tenure as One-Day captain in winning fashion with Australia beating England by six wickets at the Adelaide Oval on Thursday.
In the first of three ODIs, Cummins won the toss and sent England into bat on what appeared a good batting deck.
Despite the glorious conditions in the City of Churches, the visitors weren’t able to get off to a strong start as the skipper and Mitchell Starc had England reeling at 3/31 from 7.1 overs.
Just as they looked like they’d crumble, Dawid Malan played the anchor role as the likes of Jos Buttler (29) and Sam Billings (17) couldn’t get going alongside him.
With Malan taking the innings deep with a lone-hand knock of 134 off 128 balls, England were eventually able to post a competitive total of 8/287 from their 50 overs.
While that score was around par, Australia quickly got ahead of the curve with new opening partnership David Warner and Travis Head getting the home side off to a flyer.
By the time Head fell for 69 in the 20th over, Australia were 1/147 and well on their way to victory.
In at first drop was Steve Smith, who appeared to return to his best form alongside Warner who eventually fell for 86 with the score at 200 in the 29th over.
With Smith at the crease, Australia never looked like losing and he’d steer the side home with 80 not out from 78 balls as Alex Carey (21) and Cameron Green (20 not out) helped the side reach the target with 19 balls to spare.
SEN Cricket’s Gerard Whateley believes Smith’s return to form makes him Australia’s most “interesting commodity” ahead of the summer.
“That is rather glorious,” Whateley said on SEN’s coverage of the game. “Grace and style from Steve Smith, it’s all flowing.
“This is what I’m hoping for across the summer. He’s the most interesting commodity in the Australian team coming into the summer.
“It’s unrealistic to think that he will get back to ‘that’ form that he carried through three summers where he was like nothing we’ve ever seen before.
“I don’t think he re-establishes that, but I feel like he’s still capable of better than his past couple of years.”
Whateley’s co-commentator Adam Collins described Smith’s innings as match-winning and added that he felt it’s the best the superstar has hit the ball in a number of years.
“This is unreal to watch. He’s still a match-winner isn’t he,” Collins said.
“I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that’s the best I’ve seen Smith hit the ball in a couple of years.
“He’s in great nick tonight.”
Australia will hope to continue their winning ways when they host England in the second of three ODIs at the SCG on Saturday (AEDT).