On Day 2 of the 4th Ashes Test at Emirates Old Trafford in Manchester, Australian star batsman Steve Smith scored his third double hundred. Smith played a brilliant knock of 211 runs taking his team to a mammoth total of 497 runs in first innings.
Smith’s first two double hundred also came against England, one in 2015 at Lord’s and another in 2017 at Perth.
This year in Test format, Smith has scored 579 runs in just four innings, most by any batsman. On the second place, its England’s Ben Stokes at 513 runs in 13 innings.
Earlier this week, Steve Smith also surpassed Indian skipper Virat Kohli to grab the top spot in the ICC Test Batting Rankings.
Cricket fraternity took Twitter to laud the spectacular Steve Smith. Here are some Twitter reactions:
A pleasure to watch .. Hate saying that about an Aussie but you can only admire a player with so much skill,discipline,concentration & ridiculous hand eye coordination !!! @stevesmith49 you are a Freak .. #Ashes #200
— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) September 5, 2019
COMPLICATED TECHNIQUE but an ORGANIZED MINDSET is what sets @stevesmith49 apart. Incredible comeback!#ENGvsAUS pic.twitter.com/02MNGkYQ7y
— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) September 5, 2019
Steve Smith keeps raising his own bar. Just when you think you’ve seen it all he goes to another level. Amazing hand/eye coordination compliments enormous mental strength and hunger for runs.#freakish
— Mark Waugh (@juniorwaugh349) September 5, 2019
Steve Smith becomes just the second Australian to score two double centuries in #Ashes Tests in England. Smith made 215 at Lord's in 2015 to go with his 201* at Old Trafford. Sir Donald Bradman had five scores of 200+ in England
— Sam Ferris (@samuelfez) September 5, 2019
He's done it! Steve Smith brings up the third double-century of his Test career – and they've all come against England!
This one comes off 310 balls with 22 fours and a pair of sixes #Ashes pic.twitter.com/Z4S3pa9WFi
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) September 5, 2019
Steve Smith brings up a superb double hundred 💪
It's his third in Test cricket and his third against England. His Test average is now above 65 😱
Simply incredible 🤯 #Ashes pic.twitter.com/2em9HHM9SP
— ICC (@ICC) September 5, 2019
To give you an idea of how incredibly good Steve Smith is:
-He’s the No1 runscorer in Tests in 2019. 579 in 4 innings
-No2 is Ben Stokes with 513 runs – taken him 12 innings.
-Noone else has 3 Test tons this calendar year.
-Played 1st Test of the year on Aug 1#Ashes #ENGvsAUS 🏏— Michael Randall (@MickRandallHS) September 5, 2019
Steve Smith. Unreal. That is all. 🔥🙌🏼 #Ashes #doneitagain
— Megan Schutt (@megan_schutt) September 5, 2019
Steve Smith did not touch the sandpaper, he took the fall for others stupidity and actions. Courage & resilience to come back from a year of penance, then concussion, to face Pace and hostility & make another ashes century, has to be shown full respect. #legendary
— Brad Hogg (@Brad_Hogg) September 5, 2019
