On January 29, in the Galle Test against Sri Lanka, Smith might cross the milestone with his first ball. He will become the 15th batsman in Test cricket history to score 10,000 runs and the fourth Australian to achieve the feat. But what Smith missed in Sydney—will he ever get that back?
Sydney is Smith’s home. In this city, during the final match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against India, he had not one but two chances to reach the landmark of 10,000 runs. Cricket Australia (CA) even arranged a special celebration to mark the occasion, inviting three former Australian captains. But all preparations went in vain. Today, Smith needed just 5 runs in Sydney. Yet, he was dismissed for 4, leaving him stranded on 9,999 runs. A milestone that once seemed so close now feels so far away.
Before Smith, only three Australians—Allan Border, Steve Waugh, and Ricky Ponting—had reached 10,000 Test runs. Cricket Australia had requested all three to be present at the Sydney Test to hand Smith a commemorative plaque. Border even went to the boundary rope just before the lunch break on the second day to join the commentary. Smith was batting in Australia’s first innings and needed 38 runs to complete the milestone. But Smith fell short, getting out for 33, caught at slip off Prasidh Krishna’s bowling.
The next opportunity came 24 hours later, during Australia’s second innings. This time, Smith needed only 5 runs. Allan Border, the first Australian to achieve the milestone, was once again at the boundary rope. Smith collected 4 runs in singles. But when he needed just 1 run, he edged a rising delivery from Prasidh Krishna to gully and walked back shaking his head, stuck at 9,999 runs.
Cricket has something called “nervous nineties,” where batsmen feel the pressure and often get out in the 90s, just shy of a century. But Smith’s “nervous 9,990s” is an incredibly rare phenomenon. After all, reaching 10,000 Test runs is far less common than scoring a century.
To date, only four players in Test cricket have been stranded on 9,999 runs before eventually crossing the milestone. The first was Brian Lara. In the second innings of the 2004 Edgbaston Test against England, the West Indies legend was 20 runs shy of 10,000. But after being dismissed for 13 off Ashley Giles, he was left 7 runs short. Lara’s frustration continued in the next match at Old Trafford, where he was dismissed for 0 by Andrew Flintoff. He finally crossed the milestone in the following innings.
Mahela Jayawardene faced a similar scenario in 2011. The Sri Lankan batsman was 16 runs away from 10,000 when he came to bat in the second innings against South Africa in Centurion. Like Smith, Jayawardene was stranded on 9,999, but his fate was even worse—he was run out instead of being caught. He had to wait until the Boxing Day Test in Durban to complete his milestone.
Alastair Cook’s wait was even shorter. In the 2016 Chester-le-Street Test against Sri Lanka, Cook needed 19 runs to reach 10,000. After scoring 15 in the first innings, he hit a boundary in the second to finally achieve the feat.
But Smith’s case is unique. While Lara, Jayawardene, and Cook all managed to cross their milestone in the same match or series, Smith fell short in the last innings of the final Test of the series. His wait now extends to the next Test match—on foreign soil.
Whether Cricket Australia can bring together Border, Waugh, and Ponting for the occasion remains uncertain. Even if they do, Smith won’t have the chance to reach the milestone in front of his home crowd in Sydney. Instead, he will likely achieve it thousands of miles away in Galle, where only a handful of fans will be present to witness the moment.
