‘Modern day Don Bradman’ – Fans react as Steve Smith completes 15,000 runs in international cricket

Australia lock horns with England in the second Test of the Ashes 2023 which kicked off on Wednesday at Lord’s. Australia came into the Test match with a 1-0 lead in the five-match series as they won the first match by two wickets. On a cloudy morning, England skipper Ben Stokes won the toss and elected to field first. The home side brought in pacer Josh Tongue in place of Moeen Ali, while the Aussies replaced Scott Boland with Mitchell Starc.

The visitors finished Day 1 with 339 runs for the loss of five wickets. Steve Smith, at the end of Day 1, finished on 85 runs with 10 fours in his innings, while on the other side, wicketkeeper-batter Alex Carey finished on 11 at the end of the day’s play. During Smith’s innings, he also completed 15,000 runs in international cricket along with one other milestone.

Earlier on Day 1, Smith also became the second-fastest to 9,000 Test runs, having taken just 174 innings. He is only behind Sri Lankan legend, Kumar Sangakkara, who achieved this feat in 172 innings. In terms of matches, the Australian was the fastest to reach the landmark with only 99 matches. The previous best was of West Indies batter Brain Lara who reached the milestone in 101 Tests.

Steve Smith scores fourth consecutive fifty-plus score at Lord’s

Smith finished the first day with 9054 Test runs at a 59.96 average. In his multi-format international career, he has already amassed 15,001 runs. The right-hand batter has 4,939 ODI runs under his belt at an average of 44.5. The 34-year-old has 1,008 runs in the shortest format at an average of just above 25. He is now the 41st player to reach this milestone in international cricket.

Smith is now the ninth Australian batter to reach 15,000+ runs. For Australia, Ricky Ponting (27,368) is in the lead, alongside Adam Gilchrist (15,437), Matthew Hayden (15,064), Allan Border (17,698), David Warner (17,237), Michael Clarke (17,112), Mark Waugh (16,529), and Steve Waugh (18,496).

The Australian batter became the fourth player to smash four consecutive 50+ scores at Lord’s in Test cricket. Smith has also equalled the likes of Frank Woolley (1921-1926), Warren Bardsley (1912-1926), and Nasser Hussain (2001-2002) for four successive 50-plus scores.

Here’s how fans reacted:

https://twitter.com/vkfanclub007/status/1674112222379769862?s=20

Modern day Don Bradman

— FIRE 45 (@firefire0045) June 28, 2023

Shabaas Steve bete lage raho tarekee karte raho

— CHAD JATIN (@chadjatin) June 28, 2023

https://twitter.com/amoghgowda07/status/1674135532593631235?s=20

https://twitter.com/MrOm14852020/status/1674117916139323392?s=20

https://twitter.com/Rohit_GOAT264/status/1674112219544420354?s=20

Greatest player ever

— Shreeh (@ShreehAsh42) June 28, 2023

https://twitter.com/heretoroar/status/1674112103471550464?s=20