Steve Smith notched up another record in a career filled with them when he raced to the top of the list of visiting batters to score the most runs in Tests at Lord’s on Wednesday when he reached 51 runs in Day 1 of the World Test Championship final against South Africa on Wednesday.
Smith got to the milestone when he steadied a faltering Australian innings with a half century which he brought up in 76 deliveries in an innings studded with 9 fours.
Smith surpassed Australia’s Warren Bardsley who had 575 at an average of 115 at Lord’s. Bardsley had scored 164 at No. 4 for Aus during the last Lord’s Test against South Africa in 1912.
Earlier, South Africa seamers Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen made early inroads into Australia’s batting order as sharp catching had the defending champions reeling on 67-4 at lunch.
Rabada, returning from a one-month ban after a drugs test earlier this year caught him using cocaine, took two wickets in four balls after cloudy conditions overhead prompted South Africa captain Temba Bavuma to put Australia in to bat.
Marco Jansen snagged the other wickets to vindicate a risky decision by Bavuma on a ground where the team winning the toss usually elects to bat first.
The 30-year-old Rabada made his breakthrough in the seventh over thanks to sharp catches in the slips, with Usman Khawaja first to go off after lasting 20 balls without scoring before edging to David Bedingham who caught a rising ball.
Cameron Green, returning to the test side after back surgery, was the next out. He immediately got off the mark with a boundary but was out after three balls as he edged Rabada to second slip, where Aiden Markram took a low catch despite Wiaan Mulder driving across him.
Rabada conceded only nine runs off his six overs in a menacing spell befitting a bowler second in the test rankings.
Marnus Labuschagne had been moved up the Australia batting order to accommodate Green at No. 3 and made 17 runs off 56 balls before edging Jansen’s full delivery outside the wicket behind to wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne.
A spectacular diving catch from Verreynne then saw Travis Head dismissed for 11 in the last over before lunch, leaving Steve Smith unbeaten on 26 after the first session, where the floodlights were on throughout as the cloud failed to clear.
Head played some aggressive shots in his brief stint while Smith survived a review when he missed a full ball from Jansen some 10 minutes before lunch.
(With agency inputs)
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