Smith gives Spidercam OK after drop

Steve Smith says his Spidercam-assisted dropped catch could have changed the course of the drawn SCG Test against India, but the Australian captain has stopped short of criticising the technology.

India batted out the final day of the fourth Test on Saturday, as Australia took out the Border-Gavaskar trophy 2-0 after wins in Adelaide and Brisbane.

But Smith believes things might have been different if Spidercam had not interfered with his efforts to catch a KL Rahul top edge off Shane Watson on day three.

Late in the first session the broadcasting device hovered above him, before the stand-in captain grassed the difficult chance.

As he lay sprawled on the turf behind the wicket, Australian skipper Smith gesticulated to the Spidercam camera above him and could be seen clearly mouthing the words “f***ing wire”.

Cricket Australia and Channel Nine later released a media statement acknowledging that Spidercam was not where it should have been.

“It was just one of those things … it could have changed the game,” Smith said.

“It was right above the wire looked like it was moving as I was going to the ball.

“I think it’s a great innovation, a great camera, but it just needs to be in the right place at the right time.”

Smith also dropped a sharp chance off Virat Kohli in the Indian first innings, but made up for it on the final day as Australia pressed for victory with a classic diving catch off Shane Watson to get rid of Rohit Sharma.

“Mark Taylor, I spoke to him yesterday and he told me about three he dropped in Adelaide and he said they usually come in threes and I said ‘thanks for the confidence Mark’,” Smith said.

“I managed to get a pretty simple one earlier in the game and then today it was one of those ones that just stuck. Not to much else to it.”

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