{"id":12637,"date":"2012-07-22T01:10:29","date_gmt":"2012-07-21T23:10:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/07\/cricket-smith-wins-battle-of-attrition-to-score-dream-century\/"},"modified":"2012-07-22T01:10:29","modified_gmt":"2012-07-21T23:10:29","slug":"cricket-smith-wins-battle-of-attrition-to-score-dream-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/cricket-smith-wins-battle-of-attrition-to-score-dream-century\/","title":{"rendered":"Cricket-Smith wins battle of attrition to score dream century"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Richard Sydenham<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

LONDON, July 21<\/span> (Reuters) – South Africa captain Graeme
\nSmith scored a dream century in his hundredth test on Saturday
\nafter coming out on top in a “battle of attrition” with England
\nspinner Graeme Swann.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Smith, who will become a father for the first time next
\nweek, scored 131 in the first test at The Oval that helped push
\nthe Proteas to 403 for two at the close and into a position of
\ndominance, thanks also to 183 not out from Hashim Amla.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Although Smith crashed his way from 50 towards to his 25th
\ncentury in just 41 deliveries, he first had to endure a
\nchallenging period when off-spinner Swann made life difficult
\nfor him, often turning the ball away from the left-hander’s bat.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

His first 50 was his slowest yet, in 160 balls.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c”I guess in the next day or two this will sink in,” Smith
\ntold reporters. “\u201cFirstly, to have played 100 tests is a
\nterrific achievement, but to reach a milestone like this is the
\ncherry on the top – it feels great.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“\u201cIt was a battle of attrition out there really. I don’t
\nthink the wicket has been free-flowing in any way. It is a bit
\nslow and it was taking a lot of turn.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“\u201cFor me as a left-hander, Graeme Swann was a tough
\nchallenge. There weren’t too many scoring options available to
\nme so it was about being strong in my gameplan and working
\nthrough that.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Smith, 31, nicknamed Biff, now has five test centuries in
\nEngland, having started with 259 at Lord’s and 275 in Birmingham
\nin 2003.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Richard Sydenham LONDON, July 21 (Reuters) – South Africa captain Graeme Smith scored a dream century in his hundredth test on Saturday after coming out on top in a “battle of attrition” with England spinner Graeme Swann. Smith, who will become a father for the first time next week, scored 131 in the first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-12637","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12637\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}