Smith praises Australia's 'exceptiol' bowlers

SYDNEY, Jan 8: Captain Steve Smith has praised the collective efforts of his “exceptiol” four front-line bowlers for contributing to Australia’s crushing 4-0 Ashes series win over England Monday.

The Australians rounded off a domint five-match series with an innings and 123-run hammering of the beleaguered tourists on the fil day of the fifth Sydney Test.

Mitchell Starc, John Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and spinner than Lyon all finished with 20 or more wickets in the series to take 87 in total to domite the England batsmen.

Despite this, Smith was not prepared to rate them higher than the quartet of Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris, Peter Siddle and Lyon who bowled Australia to a 5-0 whitewash in the last Ashes series in Australia in 2013-14.

“I think all the bowlers did an exceptiol job,” he told reporters.

“Each of our bowlers have over 20 wickets which showed that the guys have bowled together as a group, bowled in partnerships, bowled for one another and helped us take the 80-odd wickets that we’ve needed to take four Test matches.”

But he stopped of declaring them a better bowling unit than their predecessors four years ago.

“I think they are all great bowlers. I can’t put any of them ahead of each other,” he said. IANS