Steve Smith became the fastest man to reach 7000 runs in Test cricket during his innings of 36 against Pakistan at the Adelaide Oval today. The former Australia skipper took just 126 innings to get to the landmark, beating Wally Hammond’s record of 131 innings, which stood for 73 years.
The fastest to 7K - you're a star Steve Smith! ⭐#AUSvPAK pic.twitter.com/sU7uxN8vGR
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) November 30, 2019
Read | Dissecting the anatomy of Steve Smith’s batting technique
Naturally, Twitter could not keep calm and the plaudits started flowing in for Steve Smith. Check them out here:
Steve Smith goes past Don Bradman to become the 11th Australian player to reach 7000 Test runs 🙌
— ICC (@ICC) November 30, 2019
He is the quickest in the world to achieve the feat, in just 126 innings!#AUSvPAK pic.twitter.com/RY2yxw2b5h
Congratulations #stevesmith become the fastest 7000 runs in Test Cricket. You are in supreme form these days. a blessed player of #Cricket . Very Hard working #Australian
— Neeraj Sharma (@neeraj10786) November 30, 2019
Many congratulations for achieving this milestone.. keep it up, you have to break many more such records#stevesmith
— Harmeet (@mangu1313) November 30, 2019
We congrats Steve Smith for breaking the 73 year old record of legendary Wally Hammond.
— Sardarzada (@sardarzadaji7) November 30, 2019
Legendary Sir Don Bradman is an exceptional phenomenon.
#stevesmith comeback has been amazing . It seems he never left the game . An amazing competitor and an outstanding leader. Will go down as one of the greatest cricketers ever . https://t.co/Q3pLrjRrPo
— Richard Rekhy (@richardrekhy) November 30, 2019
Nine years ago Steve Smith made his Test debut as the latest in a long list of spinners given the burden of being the new Warnie
— Bilal Khan (@khanbilal_) November 30, 2019
He was destined to carry on another legacy. He's just become the fastest man ever to 7000 Test runs 👏👏👏 #AUSvsPAK pic.twitter.com/V0z5WGbl4W
Steve Smith has been having a renaissance of sorts since his comeback to professional cricket after the infamous ban for ball tampering in Cape Town in 2018. After a lean World Cup campaign, he came into his own in the Ashes- scoring 774 runs in just seven innings.
While he has been in sublime form, Smith has somewhat failed to fire in Australia’s ongoing Test series against Pakistan. In the first Test, he was bowled by Yasir Shah for just four, and in the second Test, could make just 36 before being dismissed by Shaheen Shah Afridi.
Of course, Smith’s colleague and fellow banned team member, David Warner took away all the praises in the day as he scored a superb triple-century, his first in Tests and also went past the great Don Bradman’s record of 334.
Warner ended up with 335* as Tim Paine declared on 589/3, intent on putting a tired Pakistan to bat and hopefully conclude a second innings victory against the visitors.
Feature Image courtesy: AFP / William West
