In Short
- Steve Smith scored his 31st Test hundred at Kennington Oval in London
- Smith was unbeaten on 95 at Stumps on Day 1
- Smith also scored his 9th Test hundred against India
By Sabyasachi ChowdhurySteve Smith, on Thursday, June 8, scored his 31st hundred in Test cricket. The right-hander got to the milestone in Australia’s World Test Championship (WTC) final against India at the Kennington Oval in London. At Stumps on Day 1 of the Test, Smith was unbeaten on 95 runs off 227 balls with the help of 14 fours.
He had put on an unbeaten partnership of 251 runs with Travis Head after the Aussies lost the wickets of Usman Khawaja, David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne in pretty quick succession.
Smith was a tad slow to start with while his partner, Head, played his shots without nurturing any inhibitions. While Head got to his hundred in a canter, Smith wasn’t hurried to get to the three-figure score, although he finished the day off for Australia with a glorious four through the covers off Mohammed Shami.
Smith goes past Kohli, Ponting
Smith, in the meantime, went past Virat Kohli and Ricky Ponting in the list of most hundreds in Test matches between India and Australia. Smith currently has nine hundreds from 36 innings in 19 Tests. Sachin Tendulkar holds the record, having racked up 11 hundreds and 16 fifties from 39 Tests with a top score of 241 not out.
Rodolfo Frami
Isaac Tremblay