On the first day of the World Test Championship (WTC) final at Lord's, Steve Smith remained strong with the bat in hand while Australian and South African bowlers grabbed 14 wickets. The former Australia captain went about his business as usual. Smith ignored the moving ball and the falling wickets at the other end as he set his head down to give the Australian bowlers a score they could defend.

After arriving at 16 for 2, the 36-year-old hit 10 boundaries in his 66-run innings off 112 balls. As a result, Smith established a remarkable record by surpassing icons such Don Bradman, Garfield Sobers, and Warren Bradsley.

Smith continued to be smitten with the Lord's, where he now holds the record for most runs scored by an international batsman at the renowned stadium. Smith has now played in ten innings across six games at Lord's, totaling 591 runs. With three fifties and two hundreds, the right-hand batter has an average of 59.10 at Lord's. He scored 215 runs at Home of Cricket, his best performance.

Smith was the fourth-highest run-scorer (among foreign batsmen) at Lord's when he walked out to bat on Wednesday. By the time he was fired, he had surpassed Australia's Warren Bardsley (575 runs in 5 games), West Indies' Garfield Sobers (571 runs in 5 games), and Australia's Don Bradman (551 runs in 4 games) to top the list.

The most runs scored by foreign batsmen at Lord's

Warren Bardsley (575)

Sir Garfield Sobers (571)

Sir Donald Bradman (551)

Shivnarine Chanderpaul (five hundred twelve)

Dilip Vengsarkar (508)

Allan Border (503)

Sachin Tendulkar is passed by Smith.

Steve Smith surpassed legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar during the game, moving up to second place among batters with the most fifty-plus scores in knockout matches of ICC tournaments.

With a century and five fifties, Smith averaged 48.71 runs over Tendulkar, who had six fifty-plus scores in 15 matches and 682 runs overall. This was Smith's seventh fifty-plus score in a knockout ICC event.

Virat Kohli of India is still the undisputed champion of ICC knockout games since he is the only player to have scored 1,000 runs in these contests. He has scored 1,024 runs in 22 games and 24 innings, averaging 51.20 runs per game. He has a century and nine fifties (for a total of 10 fifty-plus scores), and his best score was 117 against New Zealand in the 2023 World Cup semifinal in Mumbai.

The new ball dismissed Australia's opener Usman Khawaja and Cameron Green, who was newly promoted to No. 3. After South Africa skipper Temba Bavuma chose to bowl, Australia was left at 67/4, with Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head not lasting long either. Young all-rounder Beu Webster then joined Smith as a capable partner. Before Smith uncharacteristically nipped off an Aiden Markram delivery, they added 79 runs for the fifth wicket.

In a lighthearted way, Smith confessed after the day's game to making a bad decision that led to his dismissal.

"Don't nick the part-time off-spinner. Down the slope. I'm still at a loss as to how I accomplished that. "But yeah, don't do that," Smith remarked, alluding to his firing to Markram.

Smith remarked, "Just play what's in front of us," in light of the proposal and the game's ever-changing nature. As the game progresses, it may become a little more spin-inducing. It's rather arid. I'm not sure; the seam could potentially drop as the game goes on as well. As we've seen on day one, the bounce will vary during the game.

After being asked to bat, Smith and Webster's tough half-centuries put Australia at 212. Kagiso Rabada ignited the bowling attack, taking 5 for 51, and swept through Australia's lower middle order after getting Alex Carey out. In addition, Marco Jansebn captured three wickets.

However, Australia responded firmly with the ball. With captain Tema Bavuma and David Belingham at the crease, South Africa was left at 43/4 at the end of Day 1, 169 runs behind Australia, thanks to Mitchell Starc's (2/10), Josh Hazlewood's (1/10), and Pat Cummins' (1/14) efforts.

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