Steve Smith stroked his 23rd hundred to steer Australia to a draw against England in the fourth Ashes Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday. The Australian skipper smashed his third century of the ongoing Ashes to leave the English frustrated and still searching for a win this Ashish. With a brilliant 102, he not only joined Sir Don Bradman as the only batsmen to score centuries in four consecutive Melbourne Tests, but also achieved an astonishing feet.
Smith ended the year 2017 as the highest run-getter in Tests with 1,305 runs at an average of 76.76. This is the fourth consecutive time that Smith has scored 1000 plus runs in a calendar year, which makes him only the second batsman to do so after Matthew Hayden. In 2014, Smith scored 1,146 runs at an average of 81.85 while in 2015, he amassed 1,474 runs at an average of 73.70. In 2016, the Australian run-machine scored 1,079 runs with an average of 71.93.
Surprisingly, In his first 11 Tests and 21 innings, Smith had scored 698 runs at average if 33.23 with just five fifties to his name. Since then, Smith has scored 23 hundreds in 49 Tests and 84 innings, and amassed 5,235 runs at an average of 76.93.
