Graeme Smith Game Quotations

I think it was a very strong performance. The top six we had is very young in terms of age and games and to go up against some of the best bowlers in the world and to play the way we did today showed a lot of character.

It's a great opportunity for us to have a real good look at your guys and it will give us confidence if we can win. We must beat Australia at their game and I know I'm capable of leading the side to victory.

To play 12 one-day games in a competition can get a little bit much, and they need to re-look at that if they are going to have a triangular competition again.

We?re 1-0 up in the series. We were forced into being defensive and getting through this game and that?s what we did.

You can never take him for granted. Certainly we've had the better of him in the last few games and moving on to Durban it's going to be another challenge.

The appointment of Jacques as vice captain is most welcome because he has so much talent and experience to impart to the other players. His knowledge of all facets of the game will help my captaincy considerably.

It was a good win for us at the end of the day. It gives us a bit of confidence going into the next game against Australia.

Yes, we've lost but we've said throughout the game that the difference between 1-0 and 2-0 for us is nothing. It's still a lost series.

What we are trying to do against them at the moment does not work and we'll have to arrive with a new game plan.

Definitely. We're not disappointed with the fact that we got bowled out in the last innings, the disappointing thing for us is that we had opportunities but didn't take them. We always knew that batting last against the two spinners would be difficult but it was in the middle of the game that we lost it.

We've made a number of releases on the subject, and if it happens again, how we react will be another thing. If it's still going on at grounds, then we're going to be very disappointed and unhappy about it. But since Sydney we haven't had too many problems on the field, so we'll take each game as it goes.

The whole game could have been different. Those were key moments. If we'd held onto our chances, we might have had a lead of 100.

It's nice to win a tight game against Australia and it's a massive evening for all of us. We have got to come back down to earth.

The game is about creating pressure. He's probably come out ahead in this game. But the whole series, two major nations competing, we've come here and we mean business. Both teams are playing the game very hard and very tough.

I actually didn't say anything, but a few of the guys spoke and we knew that momentum was going to be the key. I don't think you can sit down and plan to chase 434 runs. No one considers that. We spoke about this being a freaky game and we thought that if we could get momentum anything could happen.