Steven Smith becomes the first player to score a century on captaincy debut in Tests and ODIs

Steve Smith of Australia celebrates after reaching his century during the ODI match between Australia and England at Blundstone Arena on January 23, 2015 in Hobart, Australia.

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Australian captain Steven Smith has become the first player ever in the history of the game to score a century on his captaincy debut in both Tests and ODIs. Smith scored an unbeaten 102 off 95 balls in the ODI match against England on Friday at the Bellerive Oval, Hobart, to take Australia past the finishing line in a tense chase of 304.

Smith had earlier scored a hundred (133) in his first Test as captain, against India at Brisbane in December 2014.

Put into bat first in the fourth match of the Carlton Mid ODI tri-series, England managed to score 303/8 in their 50 overs. Opener Ian Bell top scored with a 125-ball 141. With the scoreboard reading 252/2 at the end of 41 overs, the visitors looked good to go past the 325-run mark, but Bell's dismissal in the 42nd over sparked a late collapse, as Eoin Morgan (0), Joe Root (69) and and Ravi Bopara (7) walked back to the pavilion in quick succession.

Wicket-keeper Jos Butler couldn’t get going, too, managing only 25 runs off the 24 balls he faced. Gurinder Sandhu was the pick of the Australian bowlers, picking up 2 wickets for 49 runs in his 10 overs.

In reply, the home team looked in a spot of bother having lost Aaron Finch (32), Shaun Marsh (45) and Cameron White (0) with only 92 runs on the board. But Smith, captaining the side in the absence of George Bailey, promoted himself to No.3 and, in partnerships with Glenn Maxwell (37), James Faulkner (35) and Brad Haddin (42), made sure Australia booked their place in the final of the series.

Both Australia and England have one match each to go, while India has 2 matches in hand. Australia and India face off in the next ODI of the series at Sydney on January 26.

Here is a list of some important numbers related to today’s play:

Bell went past Paul Collingwood to become England’s leading run-scorer in ODIs. The 32-year-old now has 5136 runs in 153 ODIs so far.

James Anderson is now the most capped England player across all three formats, having played 304 games in his international career.

113, 2, 42, 48*, 36, 104*, 55, 80, 5 and 50* – Root’s scores in last 10 ODI innings.

162*, 52*, 133, 28, 192, 14, 117, 71, 37, 47 and 50 – Smith’s scores since the first Test against India last December

630 – Number of runs scored by Smith in his last 10 ODI innings. He averages 78.8 and strikes at a rate of 90.1.

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