Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne become 17th pair to score double hundreds in same innings

Smith and Labuschagne smashed double hundreds in the first innings on day 2 of the first Test against West Indies at the Perth Stadium in Perth, where the pair also shared a 251-run stand for the third wicket. This was Smith’s fourth double ton and, Labuschagne’s second in red ball game.

The 33-year-old Smith remained unbeaten on 200, while Labuschagne scored 204 to take Australia to 598 for 4 declared in the first innings, which also saw Travis Head fall one short of a century on 99 and Uman Khawaja also contribute 65 runs.

Steve Smith goes level with legendary Sir Donald Bradman for Test hundreds

With the double hundreds, Smith and Labuschagne became the first pair after fellow Australian pair Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke in 2012 to achieve the rare feat, which has also been achieved by Indian pair VVS Laxman and Gautam Gambhir.

Bradman, Javed Miandad, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara have achieved the feat twice with two different players in their Test careers. Here is the list of occasions when two players scored double hundreds in the same innings of a Test match:

Earlier in the day, Smith also equalled legendary Sir Donald Bradman’s record of 29 Test hundreds. Smith reached the landmark playing his 88th Test match, while the great Don scored his 29th Test century in his 51st Test against England at Leeds in July 1948.

Only Ricky Ponting (41), Steve Waugh (32) and Matthew Hayden (30) have scored more hundreds than Smith for Australia. David Warner, his teammate currently in the Australian set up, follows with 24 Test hundreds.

The Australian run-machine is now also on top for most hundreds in Test cricket for active cricketers. Smith’s close rivals Joe Root, Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson are currently on 28, 27 and 24 Test centuries respectively.