Australia’s skipper Steve Smith entered the record books right after he knocked his 21st Test hundred during the first Ashes 2017 Test match against England on November 25. Smith surpassed Indian batting legend Sachin Tendulkar to become the third fastest batsman in the world to gets 21st Test ton. Australian legend Sir Donald Bradman remains the fastest player to reach this feat while Indian former skipper Sunil Gavaskar is at the second position.
This is for the first time that Smith is leading the Australian side in the Ashes series. He came to bat at number four on day two after the dismissal of Usman Khwaja and they were reduced to 30/2. Right from that point, Smith anchored the Aussie batting which tumbled initially on the second day.
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Here’s the video of Smith’s century:
An #Ashes ton that will go down as one of Steve Smith’s finest!
You can’t stop him, you can only hope to contain him! #MagellanMilestones pic.twitter.com/66WldhvWFU
— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) November 25, 2017
And here’s the celebration of Aussie captain:
Awesome. #Ashes #ohwhatafeeling @Toyota_Aus pic.twitter.com/asoMAsPSeV
— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) November 25, 2017
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Let’s have a look at the list of top 6 players who took less number of innings to get their 21st Test Century:
| SL No | Batsman | Country | No. of innings |
| 1 | Sir Don Bradman | Australia | 56 |
| 2 | Sunil Gavaskar | India | 98 |
| 3 | Steve Smith | Australia | 105 |
| 4 | Sachin Tendulkar | India | 110 |
| 5 | Mohammad Yousuf | Pakistan | 120 |
Batting first, the English could only score a total of 302 runs. Aussie spinner Nathan Lyon picked 2 wickets while Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins took 3 wickets each. In return, the home team lost 4 early wickets after which Smith and Marsh balanced the inning. Marsh ended up scoring 51 off 141 balls including 8 boundaries. Later, Smith and Cummins added 66 runs for the 8th wicket. Smith remained unbeaten on 141 and hit 14 boundaries in total. The second innings commenced on the third day after the Aussies got all-out for 328 and took a lead of 26 runs.
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