Australia’s Test captain for the upcoming two-match Test series in Sri Lanka, Steve Smith is having the time of his life as he returned to have some fun following an intense Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Having found his hands during the five-match Test series against India, hitting a couple of centuries, Smith returned to the Big Bash League (BBL) and resumed from where he left off in 2023, hitting another century as the Sydney Sixers took on arch-rivals Perth Scorchers at the SCG on Saturday, January 11.
After being put in to bat first, Smith opened the batting for the Sixers with James Vince leaving for the ILT20 in Dubai. The Sixers lost a couple of early wickets as they didn’t have a good start. Smith too tried a couple of ambitious ramp shots and laps but was scratchy before getting a couple of boundaries away against Andrew Tye and Ashton Agar at the end of the powerplay. Smith found an able ally in skipper Moises Henriques, who provided the rhythm to the innings with a couple of big sixes against Tye.
After that the duo just didn’t stop. Smith brought up his fifty off just 36 balls before racing off to a 58-ball ton as his next fifty runs came off just 22 deliveries. Smith went into overdrive after getting to his century, as he smashed 21 runs off his next six deliveries to end up with his second highest score in BBL and record-equalling third century.
Most centuries in Big Bash League (BBL)
3 – Steve Smith (Sixers) in 32 innings
3 – Ben McDermott (Hurricanes/Renegades/Heat) in 96 innings
2 – Craig Simmons (Strikers/Scorchers) in 20 innings
2 – Alex Carey (Strikers) in 56 innings
2 – Luke Wright (Stars) in 57 innings
2 – Usman Khawaja (Thunder/Heat) in 69 innings
2 – D’Arcy Short (Hurricanes/Strikers) in 99 innings
2 – Aaron Finch (Renegades) in 105 innings
2 – Glenn Maxwell (Renegades/Stars) in 110 innings
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Smith’s innings helped the Sixers notch up their highest team score of 220/3, bettering their previous best of 213/4 against the Melbourne Stars in 2021. While Smith played a marathon knock, Henriques’ 46 off 28 and Ben Dwarshuis’ 23* off seven balls cameos pushed the Sixers’ score to a range where Scorchers will have to bat out of their skin to get there.
