Graeme Smith has handled the responsibilities of opening the batting and leading the team remarkably well over the last ten years
S Rajesh18-Jul-2012Only one South African batsman has scored more Test runs; only one captain, among all countries, has led the team in more Tests; only one captain has achieved more Test wins; and no batsman has scored more Test runs as captain. In the decade that Graeme Smith has been around in Test cricket, he has achieved some pretty amazing numbers, both as batsman and as captain.There have always been questions asked about Smith’s technical proficiency – he tends to fall over and play across his front pad – but he hasn’t let that get in the way of run-scoring. His Test aggregate of 8030 runs for South Africa (he has also played one Test for ICC World XI, scoring 12 runs) is second to Jacques Kallis’ 12,296; Gary Kirsten played four more innings, but scored 741 fewer runs for South Africa. Kallis and Smith are the only ones from the country to score 3000-plus Test runs for a country at an average of 50 or more (though AB de Villiers, with an average of 49.16, isn’t far away).Smith’s penchant for big scores is also reflected in his conversion of fifties into centuries – he has turned 24 of his 56 fifty-plus scores into hundreds, a rate of 43%. Smith’s also the only South African to score four Test double-centuries. His technical flaws are a bit of a liability against certain types of bowling in certain conditions, but he has more than made up for that by his single-minded focus at the crease and his sheer appetite for runs.As a captain, he isn’t known particularly for his tactical nous – in the manner of, say, a Mark Taylor – but he has carried the team along remarkably well over a long period of time. In a job which usually takes its toll on players in four-five years, Smith has continued for nine years, and is only three Tests away from going past Allan Border’s captaincy record of 93 Tests. Forty-two of his 91 Tests have yielded wins, which makes him the second-most successful Test captain in terms of victories, next to Ricky Ponting’s 48. A few more good series could make him the first captain to notch up 50 Test wins.Smith’s preferred leadership method is to lead by example, and nowhere is this more evident than in his fourth-innings performances. When the pressure is on, when the team is faced with a stiff target in the last innings to win, Smith has invariably been at the forefront. He is one of only 21 batsmen to score 1000-plus runs in the fourth innings, and among them his average is fourth-best, marginally behind Younis Khan – who recently entered that league, during the Test series in Sri Lanka – Geoff Boycott and Sunil Gavaskar. He is also one of four batsmen to score four fourth-innings hundreds.
BatsmanInningsRunsAverage100s/ 50sYounis Khan25101559.704/ 5Geoff Boycott34123458.763/ 7Sunil Gavaskar33139858.254/ 8Graeme Smith35150457.844/ 9Gordon Greenidge38138353.193/ 6Ricky Ponting42145451.924/ 6The fourth-innings matchwinner
When Smith has scored his fourth-innings runs, South Africa have usually won the match – he is the only batsman to score four fourth-innings centuries in wins. Three of those four hundreds have been in away Tests – 125 not out in Wellington in 2004, 154 not out at Edgbaston in 2008, and 108 in Perth later in the same year. His only home hundred in the fourth innings was an unbeaten 101 against Australia in Cape Town in an utterly captivating – and bizarre – low-scoring match. In fact, Smith is the only batsman to score 1000-plus runs in fourth innings in victories.
BatsmanInningsRunsAverage100s/ 50sGraeme Smith20108590.414/ 6Matthew Hayden2791357.061/ 6Ricky Ponting2491182.813/ 4Gordon Greenidge2385065.381/ 4Justin Langer2384949.942/ 5Desmond Haynes3080967.411/ 4Sachin Tendulkar1865372.551/ 4Overall, Smith has scored 55% of his Test runs in wins; his average in Test wins is 64.21, which drops to 27.28 in defeats. The difference of 36.94 is among the largest for batsmen who’ve been a part of at least 15 wins and defeats. In fact, South Africa haven’t yet lost a Test when Smith has scored a hundred: of his 24 centuries, 16 have been in wins and eight in draws. (Click here for Smith’s career summary in Tests.)
BatsmanTest winsAverageTest lossesAverageDifferenceFrank Worrell1874.151718.4155.74Jimmy Adams2169.732319.1250.61Garry Sobers3177.432527.1150.32Inzamam-ul-Haq4978.173928.3749.80Greg Chappell3870.491925.7444.75Kumar Sangakkara4575.483433.9941.49Wally Hammond2969.841829.1940.64Everton Weekes1666.811527.0339.78Hashan Tillakaratne2469.733030.3139.41Doug Walters2863.971824.9739.00Graeme Smith4964.222727.2836.94His best year
One of the features of Smith’s decade-long Test career has been his consistency. Sure, he’s had his share of lean series and bugbear bowlers, but he has seldom had a prolonged lean trot: only twice has he averaged less than 35 in a calendar year – in 2006 (27.00 in eight Tests) and in 2009 (30.42 in five). Of the 12 occasions when he has averaged less than 30 in a series, ten times he has bounced back with an average of more than 55 in the series immediately after that failure. (This excludes the one-off Super Test against Australia.) However, it’s also true that Smith hasn’t had a sustained run of brilliance with the bat – the most successive series in which he’s averaged more than 50 is three, and even that he has achieved only once.His one long stretch of outstanding form, though, was in 2008, when he narrowly missed averaging more than 50 in six consecutive series – he averaged 49.20 in three Tests in India in March that either; in three series before that and in two after, he averaged more than 59. (Click here for Smith’s series-wise averages.) That year, Smith finished with 1656 runs from 15 Tests, which is the third-highest aggregate ever in a calendar year, next only to Mohammad Yousuf and Viv Richards. He is also one of only five batsmen to score more than 1500 Test runs in a calendar year.
BatsmanYearTestsInningsRunsAverage100s/ 50sMohammad Yousuf20061119178899.339/ 3Viv Richards19761119171090.007/ 5Graeme Smith20081525165672.006/ 6Sachin Tendulkar20101423156278.107/ 5Ricky Ponting20051528154467.136/ 6Ricky Ponting200311181503100.206/ 4Smith’s leanest period in Test cricket came immediately before that bounty year: in the three years between January 2005 and December 2007, he averaged less than 40. In the last four-and-a-half years, his average is more than 55, thanks largely to 2008.Smith’s career average, though, is still a shade below 50. However, his average for South Africa is 50.18 in 98 Tests; in the only Test for ICC World XI, he scored 12 in two innings, which drags his overall average below 50. In this respect, his stats are uncannily similar to those of Pakistan’s Inzamam-ul-Haq, who had a career average of 49.60 in 120 Tests, and 50.16 in 119 Tests for Pakistan; in the Super Test, he scored one run in two innings. Unlike Inzamam, though, Smith has a chance to lift his overall average beyond 50 – if he gets out twice at The Oval, he needs to score at least 158 runs in the Test to ensure he has an average of 50 or more after his 100th Test.
PeriodTestsRunsAverage100s/ 50sMar 2002-Dec 200430257452.537/ 9Jan 2005-Dec 200729200839.375/ 9Jan 2008 onwards40346055.8012/ 14Career99804249.6424/ 32Not at home
Smith has played in an era which has been good for batting, but he has also played a majority of his matches in South Africa, which has been the toughest place for batting during this period: since 2000, the batting average in South Africa is 30.35, the lowest among countries which have hosted at least 20 Tests. Smith’s task is even more difficult by the fact that he opens the batting: South Africa has been the best country for fast bowling during this period. Given that background, it isn’t all that surprising that his home stats are much poorer than his overseas numbers. Among batsmen who’ve played at least 25 Tests home and away, only nine have a higher difference between their overseas and home averages (overseas average higher than home one). One of those nine is his current team-mate AB de Villiers, who averages 60.02 overseas and 40.89 at home.
BatsmanAway TestsAverageHome TestsAverageDifferenceMohinder Amarnath3751.863230.4421.42AB de Villiers3360.024140.8919.13Ken Barrington3669.184650.7118.47Wally Hammond4166.334450.0716.26Alan Knott3942.275626.7215.55Tony Greig2746.933134.6412.29Stephen Fleming5745.925433.8712.05Allan Border7056.578645.9410.63Ted Dexter3053.653243.0410.61Graeme Smith4854.525144.649.88Problems against left-arm pace
Among the different genres of bowling he faced, the kind that have had the most success against Smith are the left-arm fast variety. Apart from Zaheer Khan and Mitchell Johnson, who’ve given him plenty of grief, Smith has also been bothered by James Franklin (Test figures of 3 for 60 in 83 balls against Smith), Nathan Bracken (2 for 11 in 15 balls) and Pedro Collins (2 for 37 in 68 balls). Right-arm spinners have been pretty successful against him too (though Graeme Swann has figures of 1 for 110 in 212 balls), but Smith has handled left-arm slow bowlers pretty comfortably.
Bowling typeBallsRunsDismissalsAverageRun rateRight-arm pace791749689254.003.76Left-arm pace13028582337.303.95Right-arm spin254913123043.733.08Left-arm spin14188071457.643.41The bowler who has dismissed him most often in Tests, though, is New Zealand’s Chris Martin – eight times at an average of less than 25. Glenn McGrath was even more effective – not only did he dismiss Smith five times, he also conceded only 81 runs in 224 balls, a run-rate of 2.16 per over. Against all the other bowlers in the list below, Smith scored at a pretty healthy rate although they dismissed him fairly often. His stats against James Anderson are interesting too: though Anderson has dismissed him five times, Smith averages 71.40 against him.
BowlerBallsRunsDismissalsAverageRun rateChris Martin295187823.373.80Zaheer Khan284178629.673.76Glenn McGrath22481516.202.16Mitchell Johnson212166533.204.69S Sreesanth255189537.804.44Andrew Flintoff436249549.803.42James Anderson534357571.404.01The captaincy record
Smith had played only eight Tests when he took over as captain, which means he has led the team in 91 out of the 99 Tests he has played. The percentage of 91.92 is already the highest among those who’ve played at least 20 Tests, and will only increase further since it’s highly unlikely that he’ll play another Test match as just a player.
PlayerTestsCaptainPercentageGraeme Smith999191.92Abdul Kardar262388.46MAK Pataudi464086.96John Goddard272281.48Mike Brearley393179.49Hansie Cronje685377.94Stephen Fleming1118072.07Gerry Alexander251872.00