Smith mimics Afridi to resurrect bowling career

LAUDERHILL, Florida: Former Australia captain Steve Smith claimed two wickets and scored a 44-ball 63 to boost Barbados in their thrilling two-wicket win over Jamaica in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) on Wednesday night.

Banned from playing international cricket for a year, Smith is working hard to revive his bowling skills. And he is using former Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi as a reference to rejuvenate his neglected bowling career.

Smith got rid of openers Johnson Charles and Glenn Phillips –- who had put on 80 on the board –- on the same over. This was his first T20 wicket since 2014. He could have had a third had Raymon Reifer held on to a catch at the long-on boundary.

“I’ve changed a few things – I’m trying to base my action off Shahid Afridi actually, and try and bowl quite fast and into the wicket,” Smith told the host broadcaster after play.

“There wasn’t a heap of bounce on this wicket so you could almost hit that back-of-a-length and make them go across the line. Fortunately, it worked tonight.”

Afridi, who became famous when he scored a 37-ball hundred against Sri Lanka in Kenya in 1996, was selected as a legspin bowler and ended his career with 395 wickets in ODIs and 98 in T20Is.

On the contrary, Smith made his debut for Australia against Pakistan in 2010 as a leg-spinner, before going on to establish himself as one of the world’s best batsmen.

Subsequently, as his batting achieved greater heights, Smith cut down on his bowling despite having taken 61 international wickets.

“He (Afridi) has played for a long time. He’s been a terrific leg-spinner,” Smith said. “As I’m getting a bit older I can’t walk in anymore and bowl as fast as I need to, so I’ve got a bit more momentum through my run-up so I can get the ball down a bit quicker, otherwise it just goes miles. So yeah, change it up and it works.”

Barred from participating in the IPL, Big Bash League and with English county sides warned not to consider them by the ECB, Smith recently turned out in Canada’s inaugural Global T0 tournament, scoring 167 runs at an average of 33 in six matches and is set to return to Sydney first-grade cricket for Sutherland in September.