Know About Graeme Smith International Career and Glorious Achievement

Graeme Smith Best Career and His Great Captaincy For Team-

Graeme Smith

Personal information
Full name	Graeme Craig Smith
Born	1 February 1981 (age 29)(1981-02-01) Johannesburg, Transvaal Province, South Africa
Nickname	Biff
Height	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Batting style	Left-handed
Bowling style	Right arm off break
Role	opener, occasional off spinner, South African captain
International information
National side	South Africa
Test debut (cap 286)	8 March 2002 v Australia
Last Test	14 February 2010 v India
ODI debut (cap 68)	30 March 2002 v Australia
Last ODI	29 November 2009 v England
ODI shirt no.	15
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1999/2000	Gauteng
2000	Hampshire Cricket Board
2000/01-2003/04	Western Province
2004/05-present	Cape Cobras
2005	Somerset
2008-present	Rajasthan Royals (squad no. 15)
Career statistics
Competition	Test	FC	ODIs	LA
Matches	83	120	149	205
Runs scored	6,799	9,750	5,613	7,830
Batting average	49.99	50.51	40.67	41.87
100s/50s	20/26	28/36	8/41	12/60
Top score	277	311	141	141
Balls bowled	1,319	1,687	1,026	1,968
Wickets	8	11	18	47
Bowling average	100.12	95.27	52.83	38.21
5 wickets in innings	0	0	0	0
10 wickets in match	0	0	n/a	n/a
Best bowling	2/145	2/145	3/30	3/30
Catches/stumpings	112/–	167/–	77/–	105/–
Source: CricketArchive, 5 December 2009

Graeme Craig Smith (born 1 February 1981 in Johannesburg, Transvaal Province, South Africa) is a South African cricketer, and the current captain of the South African cricket team, having succeeded Shaun Pollock after the 2003 Cricket World Cup.

A tall, left-handed opening batsman, on the 2003 South African tour of England he made double centuries in consecutive Test matches: 277 at Edgbaston, and 259 at Lord's. The 259 is the highest score made at Lord's by a foreign player.

Known for the success of his opening partnership with Herschelle Gibbs, South Africa's most prolific ever opening partnership, Smith has the distinction of having been part of all four of South Africa's opening partnerships of over 300 runs: in three of them he was partnered by Gibbs, and in 2008 Smith added 415 for the first wicket with Neil McKenzie against Bangladesh, a world record opening partnership.

International career-

In the first ODI against Pakistan on February 4, 2007, Smith hit an over bowled by Naved-ul-Hasan for 27 runs, and became the first player in ODI history to hit six fours off an over; Smith scored 72 from 47 balls as South Africa totalled 392–6, the highest ODI total ever made against a Test nation (excluding Zimbabwe) apart from the two innings of the aforementioned Wanderers match between Australia and South Africa. As captain he led the South African cricket team through 20 consecutive undefeated matches in One Day Internationals in 2005. In early 2007 Smith's South Africans replaced Australia on top of the official ICC rankings for ODI cricket but returned to second place after mixed results in the 2007 ICC World Cup thus far after losing to Australia by eight wickets. In the 2007 World Cup he started the tournament with four successive 50s, a feat never before achieved by a captain.

During the second Test against Bangladesh at Chittagong in begun on February 29, 2008 Smith (who scored 232) and Neil McKenzie (226) put on a world record 415 for the first wicket. The partnership beat the previous first-wicket record of 413 which had been set in 1956 by Vinoo Mankad and Pankaj Roy. They had finished day one with 405 runs on the board which was the most ever put on by a pair in a single day of Test cricket without losing a wicket. The partnership was Smith's fourth opening partnership of over 300 runs, and his sixth of over 200 runs, both Test records.

In scoring 108 in the second innings of the first Test against England at Lord's in 2008, Smith participated in a seventh double-century opening partnership, again in conjunction with McKenzie, as South Africa fought to draw a Test which appeared lost. He also scored a second-innings 154 not out in the third Test at Edgbaston, to lead South Africa to a challenging target of 281, and with it South Africa's first series victory in England since 1965. The result provided Smith with personal vengeance against Michael Vaughan for denying South Africa a series victory in England in 2003 and defeating South Africa at home in 2004–5; Vaughan resigned as captain of England after the Edgbaston match, in an echo of Nasser Hussain's resignation at the instigation of Smith's batting five years earlier.

 

South Africa would later on go to Australia for a test and one day series that was billed as the 'heavyweight' series. It was the world champions Australia taking on the number two side South Africa with the series winner becoming world champions. In the first test match at Perth, South Africa chased down 414 runs with 6 wickets in hand. This was the second largest fourth innings total that was chased down in history and the highest on Australian soil. Graeme Smith broke his Australian hoodoo by leading from the front and scoring 108, his first century against Australia. He would also share a partnership with Hashim Amla.

In December 2008 he captained the first South African side that won a test series against Australia on their soil, in the course inflicting the first home defeat on the opponents in 16 years.

On 18th August 2010 Smith announced that he was to surrender the captaincy of the Twenty20International South African team in order to extend his international career. He also announced that he is to give up the ODI captaincy after the 2011 Cricket World Cup.

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3. International cricket centuries-

    Test centuries:

   Graeme Smith's Test Centuries

   	Runs	Match	Against	Country	Venue/City	Year
   [1]	200	3	Bangladesh	South Africa	Buffalo Park, East London	2002
   [2]	151	8	Pakistan	South Africa	Newlands Cricket Ground, Cape Town	2003
   [3]	277	11	England	England	Edgbaston, Birmingham	2003
   [4]	259	12	England	England	Lord's, London	2003
   [5]	132	18	West Indies	South Africa	New Wanderers, Johannesburg	2003
   [6]	139	21	West Indies	South Africa	SuperSport Park, Centurion	2004
   [7]	125*	24	New Zealand	New Zealand	Basin Reserve, Wellington	2004
   [8]	121	34	Zimbabwe	South Africa	Newlands Cricket Ground, Cape Town	2005
   [9]	148	37	West Indies	Trinidad and Tobago	Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain	2005
   [10]	104	38	West Indies	Barbados	Kensington Oval, Bridgetown	2005
   [11]	126	39	West Indies	Antigua and Barbuda	Antigua Recreation Ground, St. John's	2005
   [12]	133	56	Pakistan	Pakistan	Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore	2007
   [13]	147	61	West Indies	South Africa	Sahara Stadium Kingsmead, Durban	2008
   [14]	232	63	Bangladesh	Bangladesh	Chittagong Divisional Stadium, Chittagong	2008
   [15]	107	67	England	England	Lord's, London	2008
   [16]	154*	69	England	England	Edgbaston, Birmingham	2008
   [17]	157	71	Bangladesh	South Africa	OUTsurance Oval, Bloemfontein	2008
   [18]	108	73	Australia	Australia	WACA Ground, Perth	2008
   [19]	183	80	England	South Africa	Newlands Cricket Ground, Cape Town	2010
   [20]	105	81	England	South Africa	Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg	2010
   [21]	132	85	West Indies	Saint Kitts and Nevis	Warner Park, Basseterre	2010
   [22]	100	86	Pakistan	United Arab Emirates	DSC Cricket Stadium, Dubai	2010

    One Day International centuries-

   'Graeme Smith's One Day International Centuries'

   	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year
   [1]	105	59	England	South Africa	Sahara Oval St George's, Port Elizabeth	2005
   [2]	115*	61	England	South Africa	Buffalo Park, East London	2005
   [3]	117	65	Zimbabwe	South Africa	Sahara Stadium Kingsmead, Durban	2005
   [4]	103	66	West Indies	Jamaica	Sabina Park, Kingston	2005
   [5]	134*	77	India	India	Eden Gardens, Kolkata	2005
   [6]	119*	87	Australia	South Africa	SuperSport Park, Centurion	2006
   [7]	103*	131	Bangladesh	Bangladesh	Chittagong Divisional Stadium, Chittagong	2008
   [8]	141	144	England	South Africa	SuperSport Park, Centurion	2009

   
   ABU DHABI — South African captain Graeme Smith said he would like to end the tour with a clean sweep in all three formats of the game as they take on Pakistan in the second Test starting from Saturday.
   
   South Africa beat Pakistan in both the Twenty20 matches and took the five-match one-day series 3-2 on the tour shifted to United Arab Emirates because of security fears in Pakistan.
   Pakistan escaped with a draw in the first Test in Dubai on Tuesday after Younis Khan notched a fighting unbeaten century and skipper Misbah-ul-Haq scored 76 not out after South Africa set them a challenging 451-run target.
   
   Smith said his team would love to win the second Test -- the first-ever in Abu Dhabi Stadium, which like Dubai has become Pakistan's neutral venue.
   
   "For us it has been a successful tour in terms of the end results and we would love to add Test series to that before playing India," said Smith whose number two Test ranked team hosts number one India next month.
   
   

   JOHANNESBURG: In a boost to the South African team, their team doctor on Friday said that captain Graeme Smith will recover in time from his hand injury for the home Test series against India
   
   Cricket South Africa Medical Committee Chairman Dr Shuaib Manjra said Smith is expected to be fully fit for the series after being examined by a hand surgeon on the CSA Medical Panel today.
   
   "We have been given the assurance that Graeme's injury is healing within expectation and we are confident that he will make a full recovery and be available for the entire series against India," Dr Manjra said in a statement.
   
   Manjra said CSA's medical team will continue with Smith's rehabilitation and his condition will be reviewed again in two weeks' time. He said the expectation is Smith "will begin training with the team when they reconvene on December 12".
   
   Smith had fractured the little finger of his left hand during the recently completed series against Pakistan
   
   Smith sustained the injury when he was hit by a Shoaib Akhtar bouncer in the first ODI against Pakistan last month, and aggravated it by playing in the last two ODIs of the same series and the two-Test series in the UAE. He has now had five separate hand injuries in the past two-and-a-half years.
   
   South Africa host India for three Tests, five one-day internationals and a Twenty20 International match.
   
   The Test series is billed as a contest between the world's top two teams, with India number one in Test rankings and South Africa at two. The first of the three Tests begins at Centurion on December 16. starting on December 16. and he had been advised rest from two to three weeks. There was concern that Smith might require surgery.

   
   

From Wikipedia-