Ashes Stats: Steve Smith scores his 15th century in 30th Test as Australia captain

You can’t mention Steve Smith these days without talk turning to Don Bradman. Benedict Bermange has the numbers to back that up…

With his score on 95, Steve Smith reached 3,000 Test runs in Australia in his 49th innings. Only one batsman has ever reached 3,000 runs in home Tests in fewer innings than Smith - Don Bradman:

Don Bradman (Australia), 37 innings
Steve Smith (Australia), 49 innings
Javed Miandad (Pakistan), 49 innings
Garry Sobers (Windies), 51 innings
Mohammad Yousuf (Pakistan), 51 innings
Matthew Hayden (Australia), 51 innings

When he reached 98, Smith became the fourth captain to score at least 600 runs in an Ashes series:

Don Bradman, 810 runs in 1936/37
David Gower, 732 runs in 1985
Don Bradman, 680 runs in 1946/47
Steve Smith, 604 runs in 2017/18

Smith notched up a century in his fourth successive Test at the MCG. The only other player to achieve that was Don Bradman from 1928-1931.

Smith scored his 15th century in his 30th Test as captain - only two batsmen have scored more centuries when leading their sides:

Graeme Smith (South Africa) - 25 hundreds in 109 matches
Ricky Ponting (Australia) - 19 hundreds in 77 matches
Steve Smith (Australia) - 15 hundreds in 30 matches
Steve Waugh (Australia) - 15 hundreds in 57 matches
Allan Border (Australia) - 15 hundreds in 93 games

David Warner's fifty came in 161 balls - the slowest in his Test career. His previous slowest was 133 balls against Windies at Roseau in 2012.

Joe Root celebrated his birthday by dismissing Warner. The only other England captain to take a Test wicket on his birthday was Arthur Gilligan, who dismissed Charles Kelleway in Sydney on December 23, 1924.

The streak of 13 successive Tests between England and Australia without a draw has ended. Here are the longest such sequences:

The last drawn Test between Australia and England at Melbourne had been in 1974 - the last 13 had all produced positive results.