Former England captain Michael Vaughan has defended star India batter Virat Kohli after his flop show with the bat in the 1st innings of the Perth Test against Australia. Kohli managed just five runs before fending off a climbing Josh Hazlewood delivery to Usman Khawaja at slip. His 12-ball stay in the middle extended his lean patch with the bat, having managed just 93 runs in the recent home series loss to New Zealand. The former India captain hasn't scored a century since the West Indies tour last year. Vaughan, however, refused to rule Kohli out just yet despite his failure in the 1st innings in Perth. He suggested it's too early to judge Kohli, highlighting how the excessive seam movement made life difficult for most batters. "It is too hard to judge him. Coming out of the crease in Perth when the ball is bouncing is a tactic not many try to pull off and he went for that. It bounced and he found the outside edge. But I think that now we have seen Australia (bat),
Australian batter Steve Smith has now become the player with the second-highest number of centuries for his country. He accomplished this feat in his side's Ashes second Test against England at Lord's. Smith continued with his rich run of form in English territory, scoring his 32nd Test hundred. The former Australia skipper produced a delightful 110 runs off 184 balls, studded with 15 boundaries.
Ponting holds the record for the most Test centuries for Australia, with 41 tons. Steve Waugh also has 32 tons like Smith. Notably, Smith is the fastest player to get to the 32-century mark, doing so in the 174th innings of his 99th Test, as per cricket.com.au. This was Smith's eighth Test hundred in England, the second-most by any foreign player in the country, behind only Sir Donald Bradman's eleven tons. Also, now Smith has 12 tons in the Ashes. Only Bradman, with 19 tons, has more triple figure mark in the Ashes, according to a ESPN Cricinfo report.
Smith has also become the fourth Australian player to etch his name on the honour's board at the Home of Cricket, Lord's. He joined an elite company featuring the likes of Warren Bardsley (1912, 1926), Sir Don Bradman (1930, 1938) and Bill Brown (1934, 1938) to score multiple Test hundreds at Lord's.
Smith now has 12 Ashes hundreds and now he is only second to the legendary Don Bradman, who has scored 19 centuries in the series.
Smith has a lot of history at the Lord's, a ground where he made his Test debut back in 2010. He smashed a mammoth 215 at the venue during the 2015 Ashes. It was here that England pacer Jofra Archer concussed him in 2019, which is one of the most brutal moments of this rivalry's history.
It further adds to Smith's unique history at Lord's, a ground where he made his Test debut against Pakistan in 2010, where he blazed a mammoth 215 during the 2015 Ashes and where Jofra Archer concussed him in 2019 in one of the Ashes' most brutally memorable moments.
After a rare double failure at Birmingham, perhaps Smith gave England a hope that they could avoid the carnage he unleashed back in the 2019 Ashes, in which he smashed 774 runs in four Test matches. But his attacking, but yet careful strokeplay helped him get another hundred.
In his knock, he also surpassed the total of 9,000 Test runs, with only Kumar Sangakkara being faster to reach the milestone in 172 innings.
Coming to the match, England's first innings is in progress.
In their first innings, Australia was bundled out for 416 runs. Smith (110), Travis Head (77 in 73 balls) and David Warner (66 in 88 balls) played standout innings for Australia.
Josh Tongue (3/98) and Ollie Robinson (3/100) took three-fers. Joe Root took two wickets while the veteran pace duo of James Anderson and Stuart Broad managed a wicket each.
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