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Cricket World Cup Teams - South Africa
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Full name Graeme Craig Smith
Born February 1, 1981, Johannesburg, Transvaal
Current age 24 years 162 days
Major teams South Africa, Gauteng, Hampshire Cricket Board,
Somerset, Western Province
Batting style Left-hand bat
Bowling style Right-arm offbreak
class mat inns no runs hs ave bf sr 100 50 4s 6s ct
st
Tests 39 67 5 3441 277 55.50 5712 60.24 11 12 448 12 48 0
ODIs 68 67 3 2609 117 40.76 3427 76.13 4 16 288 8 28 0
First-class 73 125 10 6203 311 53.93 19 21 102 0
List A 117 115 7 4686 117* 43.38 8 33 51 0
Twenty-20 11 11 0 325 105 29.54 227 143.17 1 1 8 0
class mat balls runs wkts bbi bbm ave econ sr 4 5 10
Tests 39 1085 611 7 2/145 2/145 87.28 3.37 155.00 0 0 0
ODIs 68 314 334 4 1/24 1/24 83.50 6.38 78.50 0 0 0
First-class 73 1399 816 9 2/145 90.66 3.49 155.44 0 0
List A 117 1238 1162 33 3/35 3/35 35.21 5.63 37.51 0 0 0
Twenty-20 11 72 91 4 3/23 3/23 22.75 7.58 18.00 0 0 0
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Test debut South Africa v Australia at Cape Town - Mar 8-12, 2002
scorecard
Last Test West Indies v South Africa at St John's - Apr 29-May 3,
2005 scorecard
ODI debut South Africa v Australia at Bloemfontein - Mar 30, 2002
scorecard
Last ODI West Indies v South Africa at Bridgetown - May 11, 2005
scorecard
First-class span 1999/00 - 2005
List A span 1999/00 - 2005
Twenty-20 span 2003/04 - 2005
Notes : Wisden Cricketer of the Year 2004
In March 2003, at the age of 22, Graeme Smith became
South Africa's youngest-ever captain, when he took over from Shaun
Pollock following the disastrous World Cup campaign. A tall
aggressive left-hand opener, Smith had few leadership credentials -
and barely a handful of internationals under his belt - but for a
nation eager for a fresh start after the disasters of the Hansie
Cronje affair, Smith was clearly made of the right stuff. The
selectors' faith was amply justified on South Africa's tour of
England in 2003, when Smith scored back-to-back Test
double-centuries - a national-record 277 at Edgbaston, and a
match-winning 259 at Lord's - to put his side in firm command of the
five-Test series. Smith had quickly settled in at the highest level,
right from the moment he took Matthew Hayden's invective on the chin
to score a battling half-century on his Test debut. Until his
appointment, Smith's career had been hampered to a certain degree by
South Africa's controversial quota system. His Test debut was
delayed when Ashwell Prince was selected for the first Test against
Australia in 2001-02, and he also missed out on original selection
for the 2003 World Cup, although he later joined the squad when
Jonty Rhodes cracked a finger.
Smith woke up to the harsh life of international cricket with a jolt
in 2004. Reality bit fiercest on the subcontinent, where a declining
South African side lost Test series to India and Sri Lanka. There
was also a run of 11 defeats in 12 one-day internationals, the start
of an ultimately fruitless struggle with England, and personal
humiliation after some wily mind games from Stephen Fleming in
Auckland. Yet for the most part, Smith continued to crunch runs
aplenty. There was one minor epic: an unbeaten 125 to square the
series in New Zealand that was made of granite. Smith yielded to no
man physically, but he could be brought to his knees by more
insidious means. By the end of the year, as Matthew Hoggard's
in-swinger had him fumbling around his front pad time after time,
even the runs had started to dry up. But he roared back to form in
the series against West Indies in 2005, when he piled on three
consecutive hundreds, and became the first captain since 1977 to
finish a Caribbean tour without losing a game
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