Smith delivers special innings
INDIA V AUSTRALIA FIRST TEST - PUNE (DAY 3) RAW emotion poured out of Steve Smith last night as the Australian captain celebrated the most significant hundred of his record-breaking career.
Smith’s ton on day three in Pune proved he is Test cricket’s ultimate road warrior as he salted the wounds of a butterfingered India with a skipper’s knock that set Australia well on the path to their historic victory.
There have been classier and more dominant innings among Smith’s 18 Test centuries, but none have meant so much.
Dashing through to bring up his hundred, passion was etched all over Smith’s face as the adrenaline of the moment pulsated through him.
Triumph in India is a final frontier that has eluded some of Australia’s great captains, but Smith’s 202-ball 109 sent an emphatic message that his young squad was here to win and that he would be leading that charge.
“That’s as good a Test hundred as he’s scored in his career to date,” praised his predecessor, Michael Clarke, in commentary.
“No matter what conditions are or where he is in the world, he adapts and finds a way.
“This innings has been very important in the context of not only this Test but the series.”
Expectations were so low heading into this series that Indian great Harbhajan Singh labelled Smith’s Australian team the worst to ever tour India. Yesterday, Smith gave his reply.
“This one will have a special place in his mind,” Shane Warne said.
India were left to rue the sobering reality that they gifted Smith an inexplicable six lives, thanks to four dropped catches, a missed run-out and an lbw appeal squandered because they’d burnt through all their DRS reviews. It was an utter disaster.
Never before has Smith enjoyed a more fortuitous knock, giving chances on 23, 29, 37, 60, 67 — and somehow escaping them all. However, Smith’s 260-minute stay at the crease was an epic achievement no matter which way you saw it. Smith’s record batting away from home is stunning — averaging a colossal 58.18 in an era where winning on the road can be almost impossible.