Steve Smith finds that elusive single run that got away

Steve Smith needed one run. It took him one ball. Was he relieved to join the 10,000-run club? No. Emotional? Not even close. Doing cartwheels from one end of Galle to the other? No chance.

Steve Smith salutes the crowd after scoring his 10,000th Test run at Galle International Stadium on Wednesday. Picture: Getty Images

Steve Smith hurried to the middle of Galle International Stadium. His manner was brusque, almost belligerent. Let’s get this over with. A simple task had dragged on for weeks. Twenty-four days and perhaps sleepless nights had passed since he reached 9999 Test runs.

It was January 5 at the SCG when Smith had merely to plonk a quick single, or push a two, or eke out a three, or belt a four, or monster a six, to become the fourth Australian to reach the 10,000-run milestone. It’s a prestigious little club, a Mt Rushmore of Australian cricket, with only three other members: Ricky Ponting (13, 378), Allan Border (11,174) and Steve Waugh (10,927).

In Sydney, everyone had a good old chuckle about the possibility of Smith falling in the nervous 9990s. As if there was such a thing. Then it happened – the run that got away. Not even Smith knew whether to laugh or cry. The stage had been so beautifully set at his home ground, with a resplendent, full-throated crowd willing him on, and the atmosphere humming, only for the SCG’s favourite son to fall to one of the more famous dismissals since Gough Whitlam’s.

Galling. Then off to Galle, where Smith, replacing Pat Cummins as captain, won the toss and elected to bat against Sri Lanka. He was required at the crease upon Marnus Labuschagne’s departure for 20. Australia was 2-135. Only a couple of overs remained before lunch. You hoped he reached 10,000 before the interval. How’s a bloke supposed to eat when he’s still one short?

Another delay. Smith was at the non-striker’s end; Labus­chagne had fallen from the final ball of an over. Would this never end? What if Smith was so spooked by the legendary feat that he never scored another run? What if he did a Greg Chappell and made seven straight ducks and was dropped? What if Smith went to his grave on 9999? Usman Khawaja tapped a single to mid-on, demonstrating how simple one run can be.

Smith flinched, twitched and stretched, as always. He greeted his first delivery from Prabath Jayasuriya like it was tip-and-run. No matter what, it seemed, he was going. He stroked the ball just wide of mid-on and scampered down the track. You might only run this frantically if you’d stolen something. Too easy, in the end. Nice and quick. He became the first Test batter in memory to raise his bat for getting off the mark. “Nice to get that one away,” he said. He was subdued. Almost too sheepish to make a fuss. “Fortunately hit that one in the gap,” he said.

Tip, run like the clappers. Was he relieved? No. Emotional? Not even close. Doing cartwheels from one end of Galle to the other? No chance. Asked during the lunch break to describe his feelings, Smith replied: “Um, nothing right now. I’m just trying to focus on batting, to be honest. Nice to tick it off. It’s pretty humid. I’m probably due for a glove change and I’ve faced about five balls. All good.”

All great and historic. Ponting, who’s called Smith a “genius” umpteen times over the years, was at the SCG when the 35-year-old delayed the gratification. “Too early to talk about. I can’t talk about it,” Ponting said at the time. He was in a television studio when Smith required only one more ball at Galle. “He would have loved to have done it a couple of weeks ago in front of his home crowd at the SCG but you look around the ground at Galle and a lot of Aussies have flown out just to witness that moment.” Ponting said. “Fantastic. A magnificent achievement.”