Steve Smith’s SCG century guides Australia to best total of Test series against India, but work still to be done

Steve Smith hadn’t scored a century since September 2019.(AP: Rick Rycroft)

Steve Smith is back in the runs in the third Test at the SCG, with a couple of late wickets backing up his drought-breaking century on day two against India.

The tourists are 2-96 in response to what was comfortably Australia’s best batting performance of the Test series.

Smith scored a sparkling 131 — his first Test century since the Ashes in 2019 and his first in Australia since the 2017 Boxing Day Test, before his ball-tampering ban.

The former captain’s return to form is welcome news for an Australian batting line-up that could not pass 200 until this Test, but Australia left runs on the table.

The hosts fell from 2-206 to 338 all out in their first innings as Marnus Labuschagne (91) fell painfully short of a ton and no batsman from five to 11 managed to pass 24.

Cameron Green, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon all got ducks, while captain Tim Paine only went one run better as Ravindra Jadeja led the way for India with 4-62.

He also ended Australia’s innings before tea with a sensational run out of Smith, who was teeing off as he batted with the tail, scoring two-thirds of Australia’s 122 runs after his 100-run partnership with Labuschagne ended.

India’s response started ominously for Australia, with new opening pairing of second-gamer Shubman Gill and the recalled Rohit Sharma handled the first two hours with aplomb.

But the persistence of Australia’s bowlers paid off in the 27th over, when Rohit popped a return catch back to Josh Hazlewood, which he happily accepted.

Gill notched his first Test half-century not long after that, but could not add a single run to his 50 before slicing a Pat Cummins delivery to Green in the gully.

Despite those important inroads for Australia, the bowling attack still has a mountain to climb, with captain Ajinkya Rahane sharing the crease with the resilient Cheteshwar Pujara, who scored 193 on his last strip to Sydney.

ABC