Cricket at its Home: Top 5 Test innings at the Lord's

Steven Smith

#1 Steven Smith (215) - 2nd Test, Australia's 2015 tour of England: July 16.

The 2015 Ashes featured an England side looking to stage a comeback in the long-format and an Australian side fresh from the recent World Cup win, so it was quite evident as to the fact that sparks would fly on the pitch when the teams met.

In the second Test, Australia started batting first and that was when Steve Smith played a great knock. He was evolving as the best Test batsman of the era, and the shots spoke volumes of his abilities. 25 fours and a six later in a sum total of 346 balls faced, Smith fell LBW to a very unusual bowler - Joe Root, but by then he had scored 215 runs. The main bowlers were so ineffective against Smith, which was probably why captain Alastair Cook did the gamble of bringing in Root, which luckily worked.

The Aussies eventually declared at 566 for 8, and England in reply made 312. Australia then declared at 254 for 2 in their second innings as the hosts, in turn, performed poorly en-route to a mere 103 as Australia celebrated a huge win - by 405 runs. Smith was declared man-of-the-match.