Manchester – Steve Smith scored 82, his ninth successive Test fifty against England, as the Australia star’s remarkable Ashes run-spree continued at Old Trafford on Saturday.
The 30-year-old, the world’s top-ranked Test batsman, has now scored 671 runs in five innings this series at an average of 134.2 despite missing England’s dramatic one-wicket win in the third Test with concussion suffered when he was struck by a 92 mile-per-hour Jofra Archer bouncer at Lord’s.
This is former Australia captain Smith’s first Test campaign since he completed a 12-month ball-tampering ban.
Steve Smith in the 2019 Ashes series to date:
Total innings: 5
Total runs: 671
Average: 134.2
Hundreds: 3
Fifties: 2
By match:
1st Test, Edgbaston: 144, 142
2nd Test, Lord’s: 92, did not bat (concussion)
3rd Test, Headingley: Did not play (concussion)
4th Test, Old Trafford: 211, 82