Five matches, no wins, two defeats: Surrey’s season already has the feel of an expensive failure, a tale of over-inflated expectations. Chris Adams, their team director, made reference to the impact of the season-ending injury to their captain, Graeme Smith, but made it clear, too, that it was time his squad began to deliver performances as a team in four-day cricket, rather than simply showing snapshots of their talent in disconnected moments.

Nottinghamshire have been slow starters themselves in the Championship but, in conditions that were suited to the strengths of their bowling attack – even one shorn of the mesmeric skills of Andre Adams – they had just enough weaponry to make sure that home advantage paid.

“It is a disappointing outcome because I think this time was the first time our bowlers as a unit have nailed it all season in a four-day game,” Chris Adams said. Read more
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Surrey captain Graeme Smith is to return home to South Africa for ankle surgery, with the county saying he will be out of action for “a few months”.

That means the 32-year-old, who also captains South Africa, looks set to miss the Champions Trophy.

“To have to head home so early in my time at Surrey is very frustrating,” said the opener, who began a three-year stint at The Oval this season.

“I leave the team in a good place and hope to be back as soon as possible.”

According to the Surrey website, the left-hander’s injury was caused by his winter exertions with the Proteas, but Smith was “determined” to begin his stint with the Brown Caps. Read more
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Chris Rogers and Sam Robson both scored magnificent centuries for Middlesex as they shared a record-breaking opening stand of 259 after being asked to follow-on by Surrey.

The pair recorded the county’s highest first-wicket partnership against Surrey before Robson gloved a Zander de Bruyn delivery behind for 129.

Earlier Middlesex were all out for 166, still 23 short of the follow-on target.

Joe Denly (12) fell late on but Rogers (131no) helped his side close on 283-2.

Surrey captain Graeme Smith could have not envisaged the ease with which his bowling attack was going to be taken apart when he asked Middlesex to bat again in the morning session. Read more
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It has been more than seven months but Graeme Smith still remembers the feel of the second new ball that nestled in his right hand late in the afternoon of August 20, at Lord’s.

He remembers the way it moved off the seam after Vernon Philander released it, tempting Matt Prior. He remembers the way England’s valiant wicketkeeper moved towards it in an effort to drive. He remembers it taking the edge and then flying to him, low down. He remembers holding on. But most of all he remembers how important it was that he did.

“That last over Vernon bowled, when Matt Prior nicked off, there had been a build-up of pressure up to that point and then it just broke. The last day was ebbing and flowing and then the next ball Steven Finn nicked off to Jacques [Kallis] and we were number one. That’s the emotional moment that sits with me,” Smith said in Johannesburg, where he received the ICC Test mace and a cheque for US$450,000 for him and his team. Read more
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Graeme Smith is unlikely to play a part in the fifth and final ODI against Pakistan in Benoni on Sunday due a recurrence of an ankle injury during South Africa’s defeat in the fourth ODI in Durban. Smith was unable to field for a majority of Pakistan’s innings due to the injury.

“Graeme’s chronic left ankle problem has surfaced again during this ODI series,” Dr Mohammed Moosajee, South Africa’s team manager, said. “We have been trying to manage him but unfortunately the impingement syndrome slowed him down today and he is quite symptomatic.

“As things stand, he is unlikely to play in the last ODI but we will make a final decision tomorrow (Friday). He has had surgery on this ankle a while ago and I think the load and the volume of cricket for the year, and particularly during this ODI series, has troubled him.Read more
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Pakistan hit back in Bloemfontein to level the five-match series 1-1, and now have the momentum heading into Saturday’s match at the Wanderers. After a shoddy first ODI, the tourists were inspired by their bowlers – in particular Mohammad Irfan, the Man of the Match – who bowled South Africa out for 191 on Friday, and will hope to move upwards in the series.

The major focus is on Irfan, who picked up a hamstring injury during the win and is doubt for the third match. The left-arm quick’s four wickets in a seven-over spell left South Africa at 62 for 5 in 11 overs, and the hosts proceeded to stumble. The first ten overs in Bloemfontein decided the match, as Pakistan’s captain Misbah-ul-Haq admitted, and a rejuvenated Pakistan will hope that Irfan is passed fit. Their battery of fast bowlers should aim to make inroads early, especially with South African openers Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla short of runs. Read more
Courtesy : ibnlive.in.com

South Africa completed what captain Graeme Smith described as “a special summer” when they beat Pakistan by an innings and 18 runs on the third day of the third and final Test against Pakistan. It was South Africa’s sixth successive win and extended their unbeaten run to 15 matches. Both are records for South Africa while Smith also became the first man to achieve 50 Test wins as a captain.

“We spent a long time on the road,” Smith said of successive away series wins in New Zealand, England and Australia, which preceded five wins at home — two against New Zealand and three against Pakistan.

“We wanted to come back and play a really positive brand of cricket in front of our own crowds.” Read more
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The last time Graeme Smith captained South Africa in a dead rubber, the team had just won a series in Australia. Little else mattered but Smith batted with a broken hand to try to stave off defeat in the third Test even though it had no bearing on the bigger picture.

One of the most marked differences between the current South African side and the one of 2008-9 is that closing the deal at the earliest opportunity is more important to this lot. “We’ve been through some growth periods. Certain things didn’t work then as they are now,” Smith said. “Systems in the team are running a lot better and some processes are a lot more professional. We’ve taken that step that we were searching for.”

The focus on being more clinical has paid off. South Africa stand on the cusp of their most successful period under Smith. Never before under Smith’s captaincy have South Africa won all the Test matches in a home summer as they could with victory in Centurion. Never before have they won five in a row as they have now and never before have they been as determined to keep the intensity up. Read more
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Graeme Smith described South Africa’s four-wicket victory over Pakistan in the second Test as one of the most rewarding wins in his 100 matches as captain of the side. It gave South Africa an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series and was achieved in conditions more suited to the tourists on a turning Newlands wicket, with Pakistan spinner Saeed Ajmal completing match figures of 10 for 147.

“It is one of the more rewarding victories we have had, a really good Test win,” Smith told a news conference on Sunday. We were under pressure on day three and we needed two days of big performances and to get that from the guys was special. The conditions were challenging, it is not often that a spinner plays such a dominant role in South Africa, so to have come through with the win is big for us.” Read more
Courtesy : ibnlive.in.com

Graeme Smith’s personal triumphs as a captain and the ruthlessness of top-ranked South Africa’s fast bowlers threaten to again dominate the second Test against Pakistan at Newlands.

Smith will receive more accolades on Thursday when he leads his team out for the 100th time in a Test. He celebrated his 100th Test as a captain in South Africa’s heavy 211-run victory in the series opener two weeks ago, having also skippered the World XI once.

This time it’s 100 as South Africa captain and Smith said on Wednesday that was the milestone “that means the most”. Read more
Courtesy :ibnlive.in.com