Ind vs Aus: Proud moment to score a century in front of my parents, says Smith
Jan 08, 2021
Sydney [Australia], January 8 : Australia batsman Steve Smith termed it a 'proud' moment to score a ton in front of his parents on his home ground. Smith brought up his 27th Test century at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Friday.
The batsman achieved the feat on the second day of the third Test against India. Smith, who roared back to form, also beat Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar to the mark. While the Aussie took 136 innings to hit his 27th ton, Kohli and Tendulkar had taken 141 innings to achieve the feat.
Also, during the course of his innings, Smith surpassed Kohli's run tally of 7,318 runs in the longest format of the game. The right-handed batsman now has 7,368 Test runs.
"It was nice to come back in the form. It was about two-three weeks ago I think I scored two hundreds at the SCG. It sometimes makes me laugh at people. Missed out on first two matches obviously and came back today and scored some runs to put us in a decent position," Smith said after the conclusion of day two.
"Always special, I love playing here at the SCG. It is a great place to bat, my home ground. My mom and dad were here and able to see that. Proud to get the three figures on the board and spend some time out in the middle and help us post a decent total," he added.
At stumps, India's score read 96/2 -- trailing Australia by 242 runs with eight wickets in the bag -- with stand-in skipper Ajinkya Rahane (5) and Cheteshwar Pujara (9) at the crease. Earlier in the day, Australia was bundled out for 338 in their first innings. For India, Jadeja bagged four as he returned with the figures of 4-62 while Bumrah and Saini picked two wickets apiece.
Smith thinks they have enough runs on the board and they will try to put the visitors under pressure on Saturday. "It is a decent total. It would have been nice to score a few more runs. I think it is an up and down in the wicket as we have seen.
"I think the boys bowled pretty well this evening and if we continue to bowl really discipline tomorrow we gonna get some opportunities. Could have been three or four the way they bowled. Hopefully, we can start well in the morning and build some pressure," Smith said.
