Graeme Smith Batting Quotations

We thought after having gone through their top order twice in Centurion and with the moisture in the wicket here, we backed ourselves to get a big chunk in their batting order.

The whole team wanted to be positive and wanted to go for a win. Cricket needs positive games. It doesn't need teams batting out and drawing games. For us, as a team moving forward, we're young and we need to be positive. To set a declaration and to try to go for a win was in our minds the only way to play. The negative option never came in.

Sometimes, when you're batting with an injury, it helps you to focus your mind, and I'm hoping that will be the case. The medical staff would rather I waited until the second Test, but I really want to get out there and play.

Everyone in the whole team wanted to be positive this morning and go for a win. Cricket itself needs positive games. It doesn't need teams batting out and drawing games.

We backed our bowlers to take a big chunk out of their batting order, and in the first two or three hours we created a lot of chances. But I would have to say the gamble hasn't paid off.

Obviously, Jacques gives us another bowling option, and he'll (also) give us a lot of stability somewhere in the batting order.

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.