Galle (Sri Lanka), Jan 29: Steve Smith scored his 10,000th test run to put him in elite cricket company and Australia was 145-2 after winning the toss and batting Wednesday in the first test against Sri Lanka.
Smith needed only one run Wednesday to achieve the milestone, and he was 2 not out at lunch along with opener Usman Khawaja, who was unbeaten on 65. Smith was on 9,999 career test runs when he was dismissed in the fifth Australia-India test in Sydney earlier this month.
Smith became the 15th player in test cricket, and fourth Australian, to score 10,000 runs in a career. He brought up the milestone on his first delivery, skipping down the wicket and punching a single to mid-on.
Ricky Ponting (13,378), Allan Border (11,174), and Steve Waugh (10,927) are the other Australian batters to have scored 10,000 runs in a test career. Sachin Tendulkar is the leading all-time test scorer with 15,921 runs.
Earlier Khawaja and Travis Head made the most of spin-friendly conditions in Galle, crafting half-centuries.
On a surface expected to favor the spinners, Australia’s batters countered with positive intent, regularly finding the boundary and forcing Sri Lanka to spread the field. Head, in particular, was in a punishing mood, reaching his half-century in just 35 balls, leaving Sri Lanka scrambling for answers.
Khawaja, in contrast, adopted a more measured approach, playing with patience while rotating the strike. The duo stitched together a commanding 92-run opening stand before Head fell for 57, caught at long-on off Prabath Jayasuriya.
Sri Lanka struck again when Marnus Labuschagne departed for 20, courtesy of a sharp catch at slip by Dhananjaya de Silva, handing leg-spinner Jeffrey Vandersay his first wicket of the match.
Smith is captaining the Australian side in the absence of Pat Cummins, who is on paternity leave. Australia recently won a five-test series against India in Australia which qualified it for the World Test Championship final against South Africa at Lord’s in June.
The second test in the two-match series begins Feb. 6, also in Galle. (AP)
