Australia’s in-form batter Steve Smith has become the fastest to 32 Test centuries with a century at Lord’s in the second Test of the Ashes 2023. Smith achieved the feat in his 174th Test innings surpassing former Australia captain Ricky Ponting who did it in his 176th Test innings. He is followed by Sachin Tendulkar who took 179 innings to reach 32 Test centuries.
Smith reached his century with a boundary in the 92nd over of Australia's first innings agains James Anderson. He took 169 deliveries to reach the three figures. He followed it up with another boundary.
Smith scored 110 runs from 184 balls including 15 fours. He lost his wicket to young pacer Josh Tongue. Smith went for a drive and got caught at gully by Ben Duckett. When he lost his wicket, Australia's score was 393/8.
Records galore
Smith completed his 2,000 runs in Tests on England soil as well. He became the fourth batter after Australia’s Sir Don Bradman (2,674 runs), Allan Border (2,082 runs) and West Indies’ Viv Richards (2,003 runs).
Smith has also brought down the deficit of centuries in Ashes history. He has equalled England's Jack Hobbs' tally on the list with his 12th Ashes ton. Bradman is on the top with 19 centuries in Ashes.
Earlier on Day 1, Smith also became the second-fastest to 9,000 Test runs in terms of innings. He is only behind former Sri Lanka skipper Kumar Sangakkara. However, he is the fastest to 9,000 Test runs in terms of games played (99). He dethroned West Indies’ Brian Lara from the top.
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