Smith is 'Captain Colossus'

2008-08-03 08:16

Birmingham - Graeme Smith by his own admission played his greatest Test innings ever to lead the Proteas to a stunning five-wicket victory over England with a day to spare at Edgbaston on Saturday to give his team an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the four-match series.

Regardless of what happens in the final Test at the Brit Oval in London from Thursday, the Proteas have gained possession of the prestigious Basil d'Oliveira Trophy for the first time. The best England can do is to reduce the series margin to 2-1.

The trophy was first at stake during the 2004-05 series in South Africa when England won 2-1. The result will also entrench South Africa's position as the No 2 ranked team behind Australia on the Reliance Mobile Test rankings.

Wonderful start

It was also the first time that the Proteas have won a Test series in England since unity and only the third time overall - the other instances occurring in 1935 and 1965 when South Africa won 1-0 on both occasions.

Cricket South Africa CEO Gerald Majola hailed Smith as "Captain Colossus" while president Norman Arendse was also fulsome in his praise.

"Coming on top of the Proteas most successful season ever, this is the most wonderful start to a new era for South African cricket," commented Majola. "It was most fitting that Graeme Smith led the Proteas to this historic victory and his innings proved that he is really Captain Colossus."

Arendse said: "The vision of Cricket South Africa is to grow the game in all communities and to be the best cricket nation in the world. The series victory against England showed that we are on the right road to achieve this vision."

Smith himself was emotionally drained by his long innings that constituted over half of the Proteas' victory target of 281. "In many ways it is a great pity that we are not at home to share this moment with all South Africans. It is a great moment for the team as an away series win in England was one of the targets we had set ourselves along with the away series in Australia and the one in India which we drew.

Great for SA

"But, if you look at the bigger picture, this is a huge result for our country. We think of those who came before us and tried so hard to achieve this victory, of those who never had the opportunity to achieve it and, of course, of all our fans."

Smith said it would have been very difficult to go The Brit Oval at 1-1 which made the victory all the more important.

He was reluctant to single out individuals for what was a great team victory but he said AB de Villiers had played an important role in settling things down after the quick loss of four top-order wickets and that Mark Boucher had done an invaluable job towards the end.

"Mark's unbeaten knock in the first innings did a lot for his confidence as he has not had many batting opportunities on this tour and his experience showed in the end. There was still a lot of work to be done when he arrived at the crease."

Smith played down the prospects for the Australian tour. "That is still some way off and there is a lot of other cricket to be played. Let's get through England and then we can turn our attention to Australia at the end of the year."

Smith was the obvious choice as man-of-the-match after scoring his 16th Test match century. "Taking into account the emotion of the occasion and the pressure, this has to be my best innings ever."

- SAPA