Steve Smith Surpasses Bradman, Sobers & Tendulkar But Falls Short of Virat Kohli’s Record

Steve Smith Surpasses Bradman, Sobers & Tendulkar: The opening day of the World Test Championship (WTC) Final between South Africa and Australia at Lord’s delivered high drama, exceptional bowling, and a historic statistical anomaly. Kagiso Rabada stole the show with a brilliant five-wicket haul, helping South Africa bowl out Australia for just 212. Marco Jansen provided strong support with three wickets.

The 36-year-old scored 66 runs off 112 balls, which included 10 boundaries after coming in to bat at 16 for 2. In the process, Smith went past legends like Don Bradman, Garfield Sobers and Warren Bradsley to set up a memorable record.

Continuing his love affair with the Lord's, Smith became the overseas batter with the most runs at the iconic venue. Smith now has 591 runs in the six matches in which he has featured in 10 innings at the Lord's. The right-hand batter has an average of 59.10 at Lord's with the help of three fifties and two hundreds. His highest score at Home of Cricket is 215.

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When Smith came out to bat on Wednesday, he was fourth on the list of highest run-scorers at Lord's (among overseas batters).

Most runs by overseas batters at Lord's

• Warren Bardsley (575)
• Sir Garfield Sobers (571)
• Sir Donald Bradman (551)
• Shivnarine Chanderpaul (512)
• Dilip Vengsarkar (508)
• Allan Border (503)

This is the 36-year-old's seventh fifty-plus score in ICC event knockout matches, overtaking Tendulkar, who had six such scores in 15 matches, scoring 682 runs at an average of 48.71 with a century and five fifties.

However, Virat Kohli has the top spot in ICC knockout matches and is the only player to have made 1,000 runs in such encounters. He has made 1,024 runs in 22 matches and 24 innings at an average of 51.20, with a century and nine fifties (a total of 10 fifty-plus scores) and best score of 117 against New Zealand in the 2023 World Cup semifinal at Mumbai.

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Australia reduced SA to 43/4 by the end of the day's play

Speaking after the day's play, Smith humorously admitted to an error in judgment that cost him his wicket.

"Don't nick the part-time off-spinner. Down the slope. I'm still trying to fathom how I've done that. But yeah, don't do that," Smith said, referring to his dismissal to Markram.

Reflecting on the pitch and the evolving nature of the game, Smith added, "Just play what's in front of us. It might take a bit more spin as the game wears on. It's pretty dry. I don't know, the seam might go down as the game goes on as well, potentially. So, I think the bounce is going to be variable throughout the game, as we've seen already on day one."

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