Usman’s the man

An imperious Usman Khawaja was on the verge of a double century when rain interrupted Australiarsquos run plunder against South Africa in the third Test on Thursday in SydneyIn another dominant day for the hosts Khawaja peeled off an unbeaten 195 for his highest Test score while Steven Smith passed a Don Bradman landmark with his 30th hundredAt the rainenforced close on Day Two Australia were 4754 with Matt Renshawmdashwho tested positive for COVID at the start of the matchmdashfive not out Australia are 20 up in the series and chasing a clean sweepSteven Smith during his 104Khawaja and Smith shared in a 209run stand and Travis Head rammed home the initiative with a blistering 59ball 70 to leave the visitors yet again facing an uphill task The redhot Khawaja surpassed his previous highest score of 174 made against New Zealand in Brisbane in 2015Smith more than played his part passing Bradmanrsquos 29 Test tons with a majestic pullshot off Anrich Nortje to the boundary ropes to claim a hometown hundred off 190 balls He was out two balls later for 104 when he innocuously chipped back a catch to Keshav Maharaj for the leftarm spinnerrsquos first wicket of the series Along the way Smith also overtook Michael Clarke to become Australiarsquos fourthhighest Test rungetter with 8647 behind Ricky Ponting Allan Border and Steve WaughOnly Ponting 41 and Waugh 32 have scored more Test centuries for Australia than Smith who is second only to the immortal Bradman 9994 with a current Test average of 6089 in his 92nd Test match ldquoI donrsquot think about that stuff a great deal but I did look up at the scoreboard just after I got 100and there are some pretty big names there so thatrsquos pretty coolrdquo Smith saidldquoI think it is starting to get a little bit more rough Thatrsquos certainly a positive sign for us The rougher and more abrasive that surface gets the more yoursquoll probably see reverse swing come into play as wellrdquoAlso ReadAustralia vs South Africa Anrich Nortje strikes twice to restrict Oz to 1472Brief scoresAustralia 4754 U Khawaja 195 S Smith 104 M Labuschagne 79 T Head 70 A Nortje 255 v South AfricaThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever