Ashes, 3rd Test: Aussie captain Steve Smith becomes statistically the 2nd most successful batsman in history

Courtesy: Reuters

New Delhi: Australia captain Steve Smith on Saturday became only the second batsman in the history to score 1000 Test runs in a calendar year for the fourth successive year.

Smith, 28, reached the feat during the third day's play of third Ashes Test at the WACA on Saturday thus moving closer to compatriot Matthew Hayden, who went past 1000 runs in five consecutive years from 2001 to 2005.

The No.1 ranked batsman in Tests also became the 11th player in the history to went past 1000 runs in a year four times. But the record for most such instances still belongs to Sachin Tendulkar, who did it six times. Ricky Ponting, Alastair Cook, Jacques Kallis, Brian Lara and Kumar Sangakkara have done the same five times.

The Aussie skipper continued to toy with England bowlers as he became the third fastest to reach 22nd Test hundred (in terms of innings) behind Done Bradman (58) and Sunil Gavaskar (101). Tendulkar took 114 runs to the mark, while Smith's great rival Virat Kohli has 20 hundreds in 106 innings.

In his 108th innings, Smith broke hosts of batting records. He now is the second most successful batsman in the history of the game, statistically, after Bradman. His average now is 62.28, only behind Bradman's 99.94.

And these are just a few of many feats he achieved today.

During his record-breaking knock, Smith became the highest scorer in Ashes test at the WACA, overtaking Ian Redpath, who scored 171 runs in 1971. He also became captain with the highest score at the venue, surpassing Bob Simpson's 176 in 1977.

As an Aussie captain, he now has 14 Test hundreds, only behind Ponting (19), Allan Border (15) and Steve Waugh (15).

At the time of filing the report, Australia were matched England's first innings total of 403, after 109 overs. But the Aussies were only four wickets down with Smith 179. His batting partner Mitchell Marsh was nearing hundred, at 85.

For the record, Smith took 22 innings in 12 matches to hit his first Test hundred, then in the following 86 knocks, he has scored more than 5000 runs at an average of more than 71.