Smith century gives Australia narrow lead

It was a sign of how significantly Renshaw had accelerated that he was able to reach 167, for at the lunch break he was sitting on 25, while Warner had already reached triple figures.

Contrasting centuries from David Warner and Matt Renshaw at the SCG have piloted Australia to an imposing total of 365-3 at stumps on day one of the third Test against Pakistan.

Smith’s team-mates David Warner and Usman Khawaja also have much to cheer about.

“I thought he bowled particularly well in Melbourne but, look, conditions sometimes change the team”, Smith said.

30 Renshaw is the 30th Australian player to convert his maiden Test hundred a score of 150. He continued to punish the Pakistanis and reached his 150 few overs later.

Both leaders are desperate to rise further up a table topped by Ponting, who scored 41 Test hundreds in a decorated 168-Test career.

Misbah was disconsolate following the Melbourne second-innings debacle on good batting surface that had seen the teams score a total of 1,067 first-innings runs. Only Wally Hammond has more consecutive Test tons (4) at Sydney. He is also the fourth youngest opener to score 150 after Jackson, Hughes and Madhav Apte (20y 137d). But the Aussies could also opt to use Agar, who has a famous test 99 to his credit, as an all-rounder.

He became the first batsman to hit a century in the opening session of a Test match in Australia.

Trumper was the first to achieve the feat in 1902 in Manchester, Charlie Macartney did it in 1926 in Leeds, Bradman in 1930 in Leeds and Majid in 1976 in Karachi.

Chasing a sweep of the three-match series, Australia captain Steve Smith won the toss Tuesday and chose to bat in the third test against Pakistan. Only Adam Gilchrist has more Test hundreds (7) at over a strike-rate of 100.

The powerhouse opener brought up his ton off just 78 deliveries, spamming outrageous slashing cut shots that helped amass 17 boundaries along the way.

While the end looms for the man who has guided his country to more victories than any other Pakistan captain – 24 in 52 Tests – Australia have other considerations.