Twitter Reactions: Steve Smith scores 23rd Test ton, steers hosts to MCG draw

The match, however, could not find any result as both the skippers called it a day leaving the scoreline at 3-0 to Australia.

By Aakash Sivasubramaniam

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4 Min Read

Steve Smith of Australia and Joe Root of England
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Steve Smith of Australia and Joe Root of England shake hands. (Photo by Michael Dodge/Getty Images)

England for the first time in this Ashes series looked comfortable and smelled a victory. However, they knew that they had to dismiss this jam-packed Australian side to a low total, which was never an easy task even for the likes of James Anderson and Stuart Broad.

On day 5, however, it was Steve Smith and David Warner’s show as they mustered runs as the English bowlers looked hopeless. Things, however, changed quickly as an unlikely bowler in the shape of Joe Root picked up the wicket of the left-handed opener.

Warner did not have a clue to the delivery as it caught the top half of the bat ballooning straight to the fielder as England saw a chance to come back into the match. Right-arm pacer Stuart Broad too joined the party as he picked up the edge from Shaun Marsh. The left-handed Marsh was dismissed for a meagre four runs from 28 deliveries.

Did England capitalise on the chance?

All the hopes, however, was quashed as Mitchell Marsh and Steve Smith stayed ground and knocked the odd loose delivery to the ropes. Steve Smith knocked his 23rd century in just his 60th Test match for Australia. With the 23rd century, he is currently on par with the left-handed Justin Langer, who managed the same feat in 105 matches.

Ricky Ponting still leads the rooster, as he has knocked 41 centuries in the 168 games that he has played for Australia. The right-handed Smith took 22 innings to score his first Test century. In the 11 matches that he had played up until then, he scored 698 runs at an average of 33. Since then, in 49 matches Smith has scored 5,235 runs at an average of 76.93, with 16 50’s and 32 hundreds.

The match, however, could not find any result as both the skippers called it a day leaving the scoreline at 3-0 to Australia. It was the left-handed English opener, Alastair Cook who walked away with the man of the match award for his excellent double century.

Twitteratis’ were in mixed emotions as Steve Smith scored a century, while all England could manage from this Test was a draw:

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