The world of sports has just witnessed one of the most remarkable tales of redemption by a sporting hero, who fell from grace before making a fairy-tale comeback. 

Former Australian cricket captain Steven Smith, who saw his white flannel, as well as the iconic status, turn murky amid a ball-tampering scandal for which he received a year-long ban last year, has just transformed his road to redemption into a milky way through the galaxy of sporting heroes with his second successive century in the opening Test of the Ashes series against England at Edgbaston on Sunday.  

After saving Australia's blushes with a magnificent century in the first innings, a superlative Smith brought his side from the brink of a seemingly imminent defeat to sniffing distance of a memorable triumph with an extraordinary innings of 142. Playing his first Test match after a 16-month forced hiatus, the Australian middle-order mainstay became the fifth Australian to hit two centuries in the same Ashes test as the Baggy Greens set the English side a daunting target of 398 runs to win. 

If his swashbuckling 144 in the first innings was full of grit, guts and gumption, his spine-tingling second successive century in the match was imperious. It was a superlative batting display at a ground known as the most impregnable bastion of his rival team. 

The world of sports saw the redoubtable resurrection of a “tainted” icon, who broke into tears, while admitting his guilt over the sandpaper saga in South Africa in March, at an emotional press conference that was broadcast worldwide. 

Smith, 30, was stripped of the captaincy and handed a 12-month ban by Cricket Australia after his teammate Cameron Bancroft was caught on camera rubbing sandpaper to change the condition of the ball during a Test in Cape Town in March 2018. However, on his return to red-ball cricket the Australia batsman let his bat do the talking while having to contend not only with the England bowling but with a barrage of below-the-belt banter and squawky taunts from a raucous Birmingham crowd. 

"I have never doubted my ability. To score two hundreds in a match in a first Ashes test is incredible. I have never done it any form of cricket," a relieved Smith told reporters after Sunday’s play at Edgbaston. "It is special. I've loved these last four days, it's felt like Christmas morning every morning, it has been a dream comeback." 

He has already leveled with Steve Waugh on 10 Ashes tons but from just over half the number of Tests and innings.

"When he goes out to bat it’s almost like he’s in a trance-like state," Waugh, the former Australian captain and team mentor for the series, said of Smith, while praising his sensational successor during an interview with an Australian broadcaster. 

"He knows exactly what he’s trying to do, exactly what the opposition are trying to do and he analyses every ball - it's like a computer, he spits out the answer," Waugh added.

(With input from agencies)