Australian skipper Steve Smith played a captain’s knock in the ongoing first Test against India at Pune. After gaining a lead of 155 in the first innings, the Australian side responded strongly, thanks to Smith’s maiden hundred in India and overall fifth against them. This could have been Smith’s second ton in India had he not been dismissed for 92 during the third Test of 2012-13 Border-Gavaskar Trophy at Mohali. There is another interesting angle related to this century, though.
England’s former captain Alastair Cook scored the only century of the 2016-17 tour of India in the second innings of the first Test at Rajkot, and so did Smith today. Throughout this knock, Smith couple the boundaries with one and twos. All in all, he hit 10 fours. The best part of Smith’s knock was that he dominated India’s best bowler Ravichandran Ashwin by scoring 42 against him at the strike-rate of 67.74. The only bowler to concede above 20 against Smith is Ravindra Jadeja with a strike of 38.15. This clearly indicates about Smith’s approach in his batting.
During this knock, Smith also completed 1,000 runs against India. It took him 14 innings to reach the landmark, which is the joint-fastest by an Australian Matthew Hayden. Smith also became the 11th Australian to score 1,000 runs against India. Overall, Smith is the joint third-fastest to 1,000 runs against India, after Everton Weekes (10 innings) and Younis Khan (11). Andy Flower (14 innings).
Moreover, Smith was averaging above 95 against India till the time he remained at the crease, which is the best by any Australian against any opponent. Previous best was of Don Bradman, who averages 89.78 against England. But the moment he got dismissed, his average went down to 88.83, best by any batsman against India (qualification: 1,000 runs).
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