London: Australia’s premier batter Steve Smith has established a new record for the most runs scored by a visiting batter in Tests at the iconic Lord’s Cricket Ground on Day One of the World Test Championship (WTC) final against South Africa.
During his knock of 66 off 112 balls, laced with ten boundaries, Smith went past fellow Australian Warren Bardsley’s tally of 575 runs in seven innings, coming at an average of 115, to achieve this humungous feat at the venue historically known as the ‘Home of Cricket’.
Smith has also surged past legendary batter Don Bradman, who had amassed 551 runs in his eight innings at Lord’s. Before the 2025 WTC final, Smith, 36, had previously hit three fifties and two centuries at the historic venue, with the highest individual score of 215 coming during the second Ashes Test against England in 2015.
Smith’s knock also helped Australia recover from being reduced to 67/4 at lunch after South African seamers Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen wreaked havoc by picking two wickets each. Smith also stitched an important 79-run partnership for the fifth wicket with all-rounder Beau Webster to revive Australia’s innings, before being caught at slip off part-time off-spinner Aiden Markram’s bowling.
With his knock of 66, Smith now has four hundreds and a fifty in his last six Tests for Australia. That all-important knock also ensured Smith has become the first and only batter to post multiple fifty-plus scores in the WTC finals.
Smith now holds the record for scoring the most fifty scores in Test matches played on English soil by a non-English batter. Smith now has 18 fifty-plus scores to his name in Tests in England and has gone past legendary batter Allan Border and Viv Richards, who had 17 fifty-plus Test scores on English soil.
Australia are hoping to retain the World Test Championship mace they won two years back by beating India in the final.
(IANS)
