Graeme Smith: 5 best innings

With Graeme Smith announcing his retirement, we look back on a glorious career, and 5 innings that Smith can look back on, and reflect with pride. 5 innings that defined Graeme Smith. Not pretty but gritty, tough and mighty effective. South Africa will truly miss this special cricketer.

#1 90 vs Australia at Jo\'burg

Chasing 435, lose your opening partner early. What do you do? If you're Graeme Smith, you smoke a 55 ball 90 that sets the platform for South Africa to win the most memorable ODI of all time. Maybe, Herschelle Gibbs's 175 will be remembered forever, but Smith played an innings that was no less important.

#2 259 vs England at Lord\'s

Smith had already scored a double hundred previously in that series, but this one comes higher up the list, simply because it was influential in a South African victory. After Smith had made the highest Test score by a foreigner at Lord's, South Africa were in pole position, and Makhaya Ntini forced home the advanatge to lead the Proteas to victory.

#3 277 vs England at Edgbaston

3 months after being named captain, this was probably the innings that gave Smith the confidence that he can survive in the big league. Many questioned whether he could live upto the expectation of being captain at such a young age, but Smith defied all his critics, in what was a glorious beginning to a glorious era.

#4 234 vs Pakistan at Dubai

After going through a lean patch, and seeing his team humbled in the first Test, Smith produced another one of his customary decisive innings, with a magnificent double hundred on a turning track against the likes of Saeed Ajmal and Zulfiqar Babar. This again resulted in a South Africam victory.

#5 108 against Australia at Perth

Smith made a habit out of scoring centuries in games that South Africa won. This one, however, was extra special, as South Africa chased down a mammoth 414 to eclipse Australia on their way to winning that series 2-1.