‘Cricket is healing’- Twitter can’t keep calm as Steve Smith makes a comeback century in the same week as Virat Kohli

Steve Smith has been one of the best batters in modern cricket. His Test game is considered to be the best among all current batters. The Australian batter however was going through a lean path in ODIs for almost two years now. In the last two years, the 33-year-old had not scored a single century.

The month of September however seems to bring in much-needed respite to the FAB4. Earlier Virat Kohli got to his 71st century after a gap of 1021 days and now Steve Smith has also clinched his 12th ODI century after a gap of two years.

His century knock came in the third match of the Chappell- Hadlee Trophy. Playing against New Zealand, the right-hand batter came into bat when Australia were 14/1 in the first innings. Captain Aaron Finch who announced retirement from the format after the ongoing series also departed soon at a team score of 16/2.

The responsibility to take Australia’s innings forward fell on Smith’s shoulders after the skipper’s departure. With number four batter Marnus Labuschangne, smith produced a hundred-run partnership to take his team to a decent 134/3.

Labuschagne departed making a solid half-century (52) but the work was still not done. Australia still needed to put defendable runs on the scoreboard if they were to win the match. Smith however looked settled at this point and kept adding runs to the Australian total.

On the back of great technique and timing, the Australian batter reached his 12th century with a single off Tim Southee in the 44th over. The right-hand batter thwarted all challenges from the Kiwi bowlers and negated all the disadvantages of a sticky, two-paced slower pitch to clinch his comeback century.

Twitter was understandably overjoyed at Smith coming back to form right when the World Cup is just around the corner. Cricket fans were also happy that they got to see both Virat Kohli and Steve Smith make a comeback century in the same week.

Let’s look at how Twitter reacted to Steve Smith’s century against New Zealand.