Smith content with pitch, progress

South Africa captain wants to maintain proceedings on day two.

DUBAI: The first day of the first Test clearly belonged to the visitors, especially their captain Graeme Smith who was forced to miss a couple of matches after being hit on the hand by Pakistan fast-bowler Shoaib Akhtar.

Smith, who scored an even 100 on the first day of the first Test in Dubai, also became the highest scorer in Test cricket as captain.“I didn’t really think about the record before the game,” said Smith. “But I’m extremely proud of it and now that I look back,  it was really difficult to be on par with the great captains like Ricky Ponting, Allan Border and the Waugh brothers.”

On a pitch that offered the fast-bowlers little help in the morning session, Smith confirmed that it would be the spinners who hold the key to the first Test, despite making little impression on proceedings as the South African openers ran riot.

“The ball is staying a bit low and as it gets softer, it’ll be more difficult to score boundaries so I think we did well throughout the day. We rotated the strike really well and we managed to maintain a good run-rate, something we’d like to carry on doing even on day two.”

Pakistan went into the first of the two Tests with a new captain and just four frontline bowlers - two quicks and two spinners. Smith, who has opted to go into the match with two spinners as well, confirmed how difficult things can be in the field when the team is short on options.

“If they won the toss, it might’ve been easier for them to manage but playing with two spinners and seamers, it is quite difficult for the captain throughout the day. We heard that Wahab Riaz is injured so that’ll put extra pressure on the captain on the second day.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 13^th, 2010.