Smith pips Kohli, becomes 2nd fastest to 25 Test tons

Birmingham, Aug 4 (IANS) Steve Smith went about decimating the England bowlers and batting records on Day 4 of the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston on Sunday. The former Australia captain, playing his first Test after serving a one-year ban for his involvement in the 2018 Newlands ball tampering scandal, scored his second century of the match on Sunday and helped his team to a comanding position.The century was Smith's 25th in Test cricket as he surpassed India captain Virat Kohli to become the second fastest to get there. Kohli took 127 innings to reach 25 centuries while Smith has taken 119 innings. Sir Donald Bradman tops the chart by a big margin, having reached 25 centuries in just 68 innings. This was Smith's 10th Ashes century and only Bradman (19) and England great Jack Hobbs (12) have scored more. This is the fifth instance of an Australian batsman registering centuries in both innings of an Ashes Test and the first since Matthew Hayden did so in 2002.
--IANS rkm/arm