Steve Smith goes past Virat Kohli with 26th Test century
What's the story
Australian batsman Steve Smith played another prolific innings as he slammed his 26th Test century in the ongoing fourth Test against England on Thursday.
It is also his third century of the series as he went past Indian skipper Virat Kohli in terms of number of Test centuries.
Meanwhile, we present the records broken by him in this innings so far.
Most Test tons
Most Test centuries among active players, surpasses Kohli
While Smith has made Australians proud with this ton, he has broken a million Indian hearts, as he surpassed Kohli.
He now has the most number of centuries among active players in the format.
This is Smith's 26th ton in Tests, while Kohli lags behind with 25.
Among Fab Four, New Zealand's Kane Williamson has 20. Joe Root has 16 to his name.
Ashes
Third most number of centuries in The Ashes
The record of the most number of centuries in Ashes currently lies with Don Bradman (19) and is still quite far from the reach of Smith.
However, he has become the player with third most number of centuries in The Ashes.
He has scored 11 centuries, while he is just one short of tying second with Jack Hobbs, who scored 12 in his career.
Data
Second fastest to 26th Test century
Again, the record of taking the least innings to score 26 Test tons lies with the great Bradman (69). Smith has become the second-fastest in this department, achieving the same in 121 innings, bettering Sachin Tendulkar's record, who had achieved the same in 136 innings.
Most centuries
Fourth in list of most Test centuries against a team
Smith yet again entered the record books as he has scored the fourth joint-most number of centuries against a particular team.
He shares his 11th Ashes century along with Tendulkar's 11 centuries against Australia.
The list is topped by Bradman for his 19 against England, followed by 13 for Sunil Gavaskar against West Indies and 12 for Hobbs against Australia.
Twitter Post
Second-most 3+ Test centuries in a series
Batsmen scoring 3 or more 100s in a Test series most times:
— Bharath Seervi (@SeerviBharath) September 5, 2019
5 Bradman, Sobers
4 Kallis, SMITH#Ashes2019
Fastest Ashes ton
Second fastest to 11th Ashes ton
Smith has scripted another unique record as he became the second-fastest to the 11th century in Ashes.
While the record is held by Bradman, he achieved the same in 39 innings, while Smith has done the same in 45 innings.
He is followed by Hobbs, who scored the same in 53 innings.
Match report
What about the match?
Winning the toss, Australian skipper Tim Paine elected to bat first, as the decision turned out to be a perfect one.
While they initially did struggle at 28/2, the arrival of Smith allowed them to recover.
The pair of Marnus Labuschagne and Smith put up a 116-run stand, before the former fell for 67.
Currently, Australia are 317/5 post lunch on Day 2.
Twitter Post
Scores joint second-most 500+ runs in The Ashes
Scoring 500+ runs in Ashes series most times
— Deepu Narayanan (@deeputalks) September 5, 2019
5 Don Bradman
3 Jack Hobbs/ Steve Smith
Smith is the first to do so in three consecutive series.#Ashes2019