Steve Smith, on Thursday (June 29), completed his 32nd Test century as he scored his first ton of the series in the ongoing second Ashes Test against England at the Lord’s.
After failing to do well with the bat in both the innings of the first Test, the former Australia skipper made amends with a classy century in the ongoing game. Resuming the day on the overnight score of 85, Steve Smith lost two partners early in the morning before hitting a beautiful cover drive off Jimmy Anderson to complete his century.
The right-hander became the fourth Australian to have his name etched onto the Lord’s prestigious Test batting honours board multiple times. The other Australians are – Warren Bardsley (1912, 1926), Sir Don Bradman (1930, 1938) and Bill Brown (1934, 1938).
Steve Smith’s fine knock was ended by Ashes debutant Josh Tongue. The right-arm pacer made the Australia star edge one to the fielder at gully. Smith departed after scoring 110 runs off 184 balls with the help of 15 fours. During the course of his knock, Smith also passed 9,000 Test runs and became the second fastest player to achieve the feat. Only the legendary Kumar Sangakkara is ahead of him in the list.
Steve Smith achieves incredible record:
Steve Smith has left behind the likes of Ricky Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar and other greats to become the fastest to 32 centuries in Tests. The record was previously held by Ponting who had achieved the feat in 176 innings. Smith, on the other hand, achieved it in 174 innings. Tendulkar, Younis Khan and Sunil Gavaskar complete the top 5.
Fastest to 32 Test hundreds:
174 – Steve Smith
176 – Ricky Ponting
179 – Sachin Tendulkar
194 – Younis khan
195 – Sunil Gavaskar
Smith also moved past Matthew Hayden and now jointly holds the second spot with Steve Waugh in the list of most Test hundreds by Australians. Only Ponting (41) is now ahead of him and Waugh.