Playing for New South Wales, Steve Smith, on Tuesday, November 12, cracked the slowest century of his first-class career in a Sheffield Shield against Western Australia at Sydney Cricket Ground.

The right-hander, who took 290 balls for his 42nd first-class ton – 103 runs at a strike-rate of 34.92 in Sydney, insisted that he played his best game against the WA, but the SCG wicket was pretty slow.

Having a fine outing in the home T20Is against Pakistan, the batsman is preparing for the two-match Test series starting from 21 November in Brisbane.

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His slowest red-ball hundred came days after producing one of the finest T20 knocks against Pakistan, as he is on the process to switching his white-ball mode to longest format of the game.

As per cricket.com.au, Smith said: “After playing the T20s it was about coming back and getting back into that red-ball cricket and finding the right way to go about it.”

He further went on to explain his SCG knock, “I was a bit slower than I would have liked but it wasn't easy. The wicket was pretty slow. It's probably the way I play my best, when I'm just patient and playing each ball on its merit. They bowled some pretty good spells and didn't let me score too much. I just hung in there. I just had to grind it out.”

Meanwhile, Smith is looking forward to play his first Test match at The Gabba Test since returning from his 12-month ban earlier this year, saying he is ready to resume his run-scoring spree to entertain his home crowd in the red-ball cricket next week.

He signed off by saying, “I like playing cricket at the Gabba. Australia's got a great record there. I'm excited about getting back out there and playing some Test cricket in front of the home fans.”

(With cricket.com.au Inputs)