Skippers' dinner wraps up memorable cricket series
From Stuff, 31 March 2004
Rival cricket captains Stephen Fleming and Graeme Smith
parted friends yesterday after sharing a mid-test dinner
and sealing a tense series with a warm handshake.
It brought the relationship between the two kingpins
of the New Zealand-South Africa series full circle after
Fleming's startling verbal tirade at Smith a month earlier
during the fifth one-dayer in Auckland.
A South African team spokesman confirmed the pair met
for dinner at Smith's request in Wellington on Sunday,
after the third day of the third test, apparently to
discuss captaincy and for Smith to pick his senior counterpart's
brains.
Neither wanted to publicly discuss what they talked
about.
South Africa's youngest test captain was set to fly
home with his teammates early tomorrow with some satisfaction
after making huge ground on his opposite number with
a matchwinning century and a respectable 1-1 test series
result in the finale at the Basin Reserve yesterday.
It wrapped up a tough tour for the Proteas on a welcome
high note after they struggled in New Zealand conditions
and were hammered 1-5 in the one-dayers.
The battle of the skippers highlighted one of the more
memorable series on New Zealand soil which contained
its share of on and off-field verbal sparring, outstanding
batting and a wildly fluctuating three tests.
Fleming, who turns 31 tomorrow and is seven years Smith's
senior, took a points victory from the captaincy duel
with his innovative bowling changes and field settings.
One disappointment was his failure to lead from the
front with the bat in Wellington as the series win slipped
away, but it didn't stop him firing off some praise.
"I enjoyed it thoroughly. He's a very good player,
he's going to be a very good captain and in this test
we saw both under pressure," Fleming said.
"He's pretty emotional and we tapped into that a couple
of times but that's something he'll learn.
"If given a chance I think he'll develop into one of
their best."
The moment of the series was the close-up television
footage of Fleming lambasting Smith for perceived time-wasting
as he walked out to bat in Auckland.
Smith admitted he was stunned by the outburst but Fleming
claimed it was pure gamesmanship.
"It was never personal, I made it personal in one game
to get the edge. It gave the media a story for a week
which probably made life easier."
Smith showed his fighting qualities with his 125 not
out in Wellington and won Fleming's respect as he denied
the home side their first test series win over South
Africa - something which seemed elementary after their
magnificent nine wicket win in Auckland.
The pair exchanged kind words soon after Smith hit
the winning runs.
"He said 'well batted, great knock' and I wished him
well for England. He's a serious leader and I said congrats
on a good season," Smith said.
Pitches were the big talking point, with the South
African bowlers and paceman Andre Nel in particular
taking until the final match of the tour to adjust to
the less bouncy foreign surfaces and finally cause problems
for the batsmen.
"They prepared wickets that didn't really suit us.
We didn't bowl well on them and it slowed down our batting,"
Smith said.
"Results wise it's been a disappointing tour but learning
wise it's been an extremely good one for us."
Most pitches were slow and low, including the crater-ridden
Hamilton test strip, and saw bat dominate ball with
five South Africans and four New Zealanders averaging
50-plus in the test series.
They included Gary Kirsten and Chris Cairns, the former
who retired from his 101-test career on a high and the
latter who is expected to follow suit in coming days.
Kirsten scored 76 in his tearful farewell to test cricket
to end the series with an average of 50 while Cairns
slayed a career-best 158 in Auckland to average 74.
The only bowler to make big inroads was the unlikely
figure of wiry paceman Chris Martin who took three successive
five-wicket bags to take 18 wickets at 16.66.
New Zealand leave for England on April 27 for a three-test
series while South Africa have a break before their
June tour of Sri Lanka.
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