Steve Smith shakes up record books with 30th Test century in 3rd Test vs South Africa

Australian cricketer Steve Smith became Australia’s third-highest century scorer in Tests by hitting 104 runs off 192 balls in the first innings of Australia vs South Africa, third Test match. After coming in to bat in the 48th over, the former Aussie captain partnered Usman Khawaja in a 209-run stand for the third wicket. Batting at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Smith hammered 11 fours and two sixes during his knock and smashed several notable records.

The 33-year-old surpassed the legendary Sir Donald Bradman in the list of century scorers in Test cricket for Australia and tied Matthew Hayden for the third most centuries. Former skipper Ricky Ponting scored the highest of 41 hundreds for the team in 168 Test matches, while Steve Waugh hit 32 centuries in the same amount of games. Smith is currently playing in his 92nd game, whereas Hayden and Sir Donald Bradman played 103 and 52 matches respectively. 

Steve Smith is now Australia's 4th highest run scorer in Test cricket

Smith also became the country’s fourth-highest run scorer in the format by overtaking Hayden and Michael Clarke. He now sits only below legends like Ponting, Allan Border, and Waugh with 8647 runs in his career so far. He has a stunning average of 60.89 while batting in the longest format.

Steve Smith follows Sachin Tendulkar in elite list of records

At the same time, Steve Smith also became the second-fastest player to score 30 Test centuries. While Smith claimed the record in 162 innings, Tendulkar took 159 innings to complete 30 hundreds. Hayden and Ponting took 167 and 170 Test innings respectively, while Indian cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar completed the milestone in 174 innings. 

Coming as the no. 4 batter, Smith joined Khawaja in the middle when Australia’s score was 147/2 in 47 overs. The duo hit a massive double-century stand for the third wicket, before the former skipper’s dismissal reduced the home side to 356/3 in 109.1 overs. Meanwhile, Khawaja completed his 150, two overs before Smith’s dismissal and looked promising to play a much bigger knock. After 125 overs in the first innings, Australia found themselves at 437/3 with Khawaja and Travis Head in the middle.