Captain Fantastic falls short

“HE’S Out!”

These two words were once used by a London newspaper to broadcast a phenomenal event: someone, somehow had dismissed Sir Donald Bradman in an Ashes Test.

Yesterday, social media blew up with the same sentiment as a capacity crowd went silent from shock.

Steve Smith might have fallen 17 runs short of Ashes immortality at the SCG, but he didn’t need to sit alongside Bradman to stand out on his own as the most influential figure in modern cricket.

The saying used to go, batsmen save games and bowlers win them. Smith has flipped that thinking on its head and it’s daylight between he and the next best.

The only question left to be answered after Smith fell agonisingly short of four centuries and 700 runs in an Ashes series, is whether the modernday master is even at his peak?

Smith’s extraordinary reign of dominance since his first Test century four-and-a-half years ago has gone far too long to be considered a “streak”.

The Australian captain already has the numbers to be considered an all-time great, aged 28.

But the tantalising unknown is whether his Bradman-like Ashes series is the best Smith has to offer, or whether we should just accept this as standard performance.

Quite simply, how long can he keep it going?

Since Smith’s breakthrough maiden Test hundred against England at The Oval in 2013, he has played in 15 series of Test cricket.

In every single one — with the exception of last year’s two-Test tour of Bangladesh where he only made one half century — Smith has averaged over 40 every time.

On six occasions he has averaged over 110 for a series.

His three centuries this Ashes campaign have been series-defining. It’s conceivable that this series could be 3-1 England coming into Sydney if not for Steve Smith.