Steve Smith yesterday scored his 10,000th Test run to put him in elite cricket company as Australia were 145-2 after winning the toss and batting in the first Test against Sri Lanka.
Smith needed only one run to achieve the milestone, and he was 2 not out at lunch along with opener Usman Khawaja, who was unbeaten on 65.
Smith was on 9,999 career Test runs when he was dismissed in the fifth Australia-India Test in Sydney earlier this month.
Photo: AFP
Smith became the 15th player in Test cricket, and fourth Australian, to score 10,000 runs in a career. He brought up the milestone on his first delivery, skipping down the wicket and punching a single to mid-on.
Ricky Ponting (13,378), Allan Border (11,174) and Steve Waugh (10,927) are the other Australia batters to have scored 10,000 runs in a Test career. Sachin Tendulkar is the leading all-time Test scorer with 15,921 runs.
Earlier, Khawaja and Travis Head made the most of spin-friendly conditions in Galle, crafting half-centuries.
On a surface expected to favor the spinners, Australia’s batters countered with positive intent, regularly finding the boundary and forcing Sri Lanka to spread the field. Head, in particular, was in a punishing mood, reaching his half-century in just 35 balls, leaving Sri Lanka scrambling for answers.
Khawaja, by contrast, adopted a more measured approach, playing with patience while rotating the strike. The duo stitched together a commanding 92-run opening stand before Head fell for 57, caught at long-on off Prabath Jayasuriya.
Sri Lanka struck again when Marnus Labuschagne departed for 20, courtesy of a sharp catch at slip by Dhananjaya de Silva, handing leg-spinner Jeffrey Vandersay his first wicket of the match.
Smith is captaining the Australia side in the absence of Pat Cummins, who is on paternity leave.
Australia won a five-Test series against India which qualified the side for the World Test Championship final against South Africa at Lord’s in London in June.
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