Steve Smith opened up about his brief moment of tension with Babar Azam during the BBL 2025/26 encounter between Sydney Sixers and Sydney Thunder at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) on January 16. The incident happened on the last ball of the 11th over when Babar played the ball to long-on and wanted a single, but Smith turned it down and sent him back.
After the over ended, Babar’s frustration was visible as he threw his arms up before having a brief exchange with Smith at the non-striker’s end. It was Smith’s strategy to push the Power Surge back by an over so that he could attack the shorter boundary.
Speaking about the incident, Smith said at the post-match presentation: “Yeah, we spoke at the 10-over mark and they suggested taking the Surge straight away. I said no — give it one more over. I wanted to target the short boundary and didn’t want to mess up the first over. I was aiming to get around 30 from that over, and we ended up with 32, which was a great result. I’m not sure Babar was too happy with me turning down that single though.”
Smith capitalised on the opportunity he created and hit Ryan Hadley for 32 runs, which included four sixes and a boundary. It was the most expensive over in the history of the BBL. However, Babar was dismissed on the first ball of the next over, and in frustration, he hit the boundary cushion while walking back to the dressing room.
Smith, meanwhile, continued his brilliant innings and smashed a 41-ball century. Eventually, Sydney Sixers chased down the 190-run target with 16 balls and five wickets to spare.
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