Steve Smith completes 10000th Test run in Sri Lanka, second-quickest Australian to record feat | Cricket News

Steve Smith completed his 10,000th Test run with his first scoring shot on the tour of Sri Lanka in Galle on Wednesday.
Flicking left-arm spinner Prabath Jayasuriya for a single to mid-on in his 205th innings, Smith became the fifth-fastest batter to reach the milestone in his 205th innings.
Among Aussies, only former captain Ricky Ponting has crossed the milestone quicker in only 196 innings.
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No batter in Test hory has plundered runs quite like Smith has in his prime. After playing the first 10 innings of his career at No. 6-9, Smith marked his return to the Aussie Test side as a designated middle-order bat, starting in India in 2013. His first innings at No. 5 was a 185-ball 92 in Mohali. While he had settled in with a few reputable knocks, it was not until 2014 that Smith began his world domination.
Starting his 32nd innings against England with a 154-ball 115 in Sydney in the 2014 New Year’s Test, Smith amassed 6,257 runs over 100 consecutive innings at a 71.92 average. The peak is undisputed in Test hory and bore 24 centuries over a six-year period that ended in January 2020.

His range of hundreds in this period also acts as a microcosm in encapsulating the typical Smith trait of Test match-batting – setting up games with first-innings hundreds. Earlier this month, Smith one short of the milestone run during the Sydney Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The Aussie No. 4 there became only the third batter to have been dismissed stranded on 9999.
Fastest to 10,000 Test runs (innings)
195 = Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Kumar Sangakkara
196 – Ricky Ponting
205* – Steve Smith
206 – Rahul Dravid

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