Ashes 2017/18, Gabba Test Day 3 Stats: '21st Century' great Steve Smith smashes multiple records

A defiant Steve Smith, facing the challenge of ‘modern bodyline tactics’, scored a gritty century, his 21st Test ton, against England in the opening Test of the 2017-18 Ashes. Playing against short pitched deliveries with an empty off-side and a packed leg-side field, he essayed a stunning lone hand even as his teammates refused to hang on in the face of a solid bowling display from the tourists.

It has been a remarkable journey for the 28-year-old, who made his Test debut in the same game as Tim Paine, Australia’s wicket-keeper for this game, who is playing his first game in seven years.

In response to England’s first innings score of 302, the Australians ended on 328, a slim lead of 26 runs on the third day of the opening Test.

Here are all the important numbers from the game:

3 - Steve Smith is now third on the list of players who have taken the fewest innings to score 21 Test centuries, having taken just 105 innings.

Here’s the complete list:

56 - Donald Bradman

98 - Sunil Gavaskar

105 - Steve Smith

110 - Sachin Tendulkar

120 - Mohammad Yousuf

121 - Walter Hammond and Garry Sobers

3 - This is only the fourth instance since 1999, that Australia had batted at home for more than 100 overs, with a strike-rate of under 3.

4 - This is only the fourth instance in the last 29 years that an England Test XI is made of all 11 players from England.

4 - This was the fourth instance of captains scoring an Ashes century at Brisbane in the last 39 years.

The other instances are Ricky Ponting (2006-07), Andrew Strauss (2010-11) and Michael Clarke (2013-14).

Interestingly, the respective teams of these captains won the Ashes that year.

5 - Steve Smith became the fifth player to score a century on his Ashes captaincy debut.

The other four are:

Archie MacLaren (1897)

Monty Noble (1903)

Herbie Collins (1924)

Steve Waugh (2001)

6 - This is the sixth century for Smith in the Ashes, the third most by any player before turning 29.

114 - Smith broke Noble’s 114-year-old record of scoring most runs as captain on Ashes debut. Noble, in 1903, had scored 133.

261 - This was the slowest Test hundred for Smith in terms of balls faced (261). The second slowest was his ton against India (227 balls) at Ranchi earlier this year.