One of the great pleasures in Australian sport is watching skipper Steve Smith bat.

He defies traditional batting techniques – he does it the Steve Smith way, which is highly effective, as the best bowlers in the world have found out.

There’s no elegance in his strokeplay, but who gives a continental when bat meets ball with every part of Smith’s superb hand-eye co-ordination and body movement in perfect sync.

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Yesterday and last night at the Gabba was another Steve Smith special to post his first Test ton against Pakistan.

It took 192 deliveries of sheer patience with his strokeplay netting 16 boundaries.

By normal Smith standards that was slow, but the situation demanded he stuck around while still accumulating runs.

As a result he shared a 76-run third wicket partnership with Matt Renshaw (71), and an unbroken 137 fourth wicket stand with Peter Handscomb (64*) for Australia to end day one well in control at 3-288.

Two new boys on the Test block being led by their skipper – a huge bonus for Australian cricket.

That was Smith’s 16th Test ton in his 88th dig, only Bradman (48), Herbert Sutcliffe (69), Matt Hayden (77), and Sunil Gavaskar (85) have been faster to the milestone.



But when it comes to Test tons compared to dismissals among Australian skippers, Steve Smith is second only to The Don.

And when it’s acknowledged Don Bradman was a batting genius in cricket history, Steve Smith is the best of the mere mortals.

Bradman scored 27 Test tons among his 70 dismissals – that gave him three figures every 2.59 visits to the crease – a staggering stat.

But Smith’s stats are brilliant as well.

2.59 – Don Bradman with 27 Test tons from 70 dismissals.

4.37 – Steve Smith – 16 from 70.

5.50 – Greg Chappell – 24 from 132.

6.05 – Neil Harvey – 21 from 127.

6.29 – Ricky Ponting – 41 from 258.

6.29 – Michael Clarke – 28 from 176.

6.33 – Arthur Morris -m12 from 76.

6.60 – Lindsay Hassett – 10 from 66.

6.69 – Steve Waugh – 32 from 214.

6.88 – Adam Gilchrist – 17 from 117.

7.14 – Bill Woodfull – 7 from 50.

7.50 – Herbie Collins – 4 from 30.

8.11 – Allan Border – 27 from 219.

8.40 – Brian Booth – 5 from 42.

8.38 – Graham Yallop – 8 from 67.

8.54 – Bill Lawry – 13 from 111.

9.00 – Ian Chappell – 14 from 126.

9.00 – Jack Ryder – 3 from 27.

9.11 – Mark Taylor – 19 from 173.

10.40 – Bobby Simpson – 10 from 104.

10.16 – Warren Bardsley – 6 from 61.

12.33 – Warwick Armstrong – 6 from 74.

12.43 – Clem Hill – 7 from 87.

13.11 – Kim Hughes – 9 from 118.

Long may this rich vein of Steve Smith’s batting continue.