steve-smith-completes-10-000-test-runs

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 the 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 favour 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.