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"Babar Azam wasn't happy with me ": Steve Smith on denying single to PAK star in BBL

Abhinav Tyagi

Steve Smith and Babar Azam - (Source: X.com)Steve Smith and Babar Azam - (Source: X.com)

On Friday, January 16, the crowd at Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) witnessed a thriller as the Sixers pulled off a stunning win over the Thunder to win the Sydney Derby. The David Warner-led side, batting first, put 189 runs on the board, courtesy of the skipper’s third BBL century.

Thunder are already out of the race for the playoffs, but had the chance to ruin the Sixers’ plan. However, Steve Smith had other ideas, and the right-handed batter brought up a 41-ball century, which is the joint-second fastest in the history of the league. 

Steve Smith hammers 32 runs in an over

Notably, Smith reached the feat in just 41 balls as he took on bowler Ryan Hadley. Smith slammed him for 32 runs in the over. The right-handed batter slammed four consecutive centuries and had his eyes set on six sixes in the over.

However, on the fifth ball, he slammed one for a four, but it turned out to be a four. Under pressure, Hadley bowled a wide, resulting in 30 runs off just four balls. However, he bounced back in the last two balls and gave away just two more runs. Eventually, Smith collected 32 runs off the over.


Drama unfolds before a 32-run over

It was all good that Smith slammed Hadley for 32 runs in an over, but drama unfolded in the previous over when Steve Smith denied a single to Babar Azam. Compared to Smith, the Pakistan batter was struggling to keep up with the pace and played four consecutive dots in the 10th over of the game.

Babar looked for a single on the last ball of the over, but Smith denied him a run so that he could keep the strike during the power surge. Babar was unhappy and even had a discussion with Smith after the over. Interestingly, Smith played the entire power surge over, and when Babar came to bat, he lost his wicket.

The former Pakistan captain was furious and didn’t even look at his partner. Further, Babar hogged the internet after he lost his cool and slammed the boundary cushion. 

Smith opens up on the controversy with Babar Azam

In the latest events, Smith has opened up on the drama and remarked that Babar isn’t too pleased with him while speaking with Cricket 7.

“At the 10-over mark, they asked me to take the power surge. I told him to give me one more over I’d take it on the short boundary and go for 30 runs. We got 32 of that. Not sure Babar Azam was happy with me for turning down that single."

The internet quickly turned the incident into a rage fest because they felt that Babar Azam was humiliated. Notably, a few days ago, Mohammad Rizwan met the same fate after he was retired out in the BBL match between Melbourne Renegades and Sydney Thunder.