Graeme Smith's knock of 68 in the second innings was played in three parts. In the morning session, he played himself in, scoring just 13 runs from 45 balls. As the confidence started to grow, the runs began to flow more easily: in the afternoon session, he added exactly 50 from 71 balls. Then, inexplicably, he lost his rhythm after tea, adding a mere five runs in 31 balls before being dismissed by Shane Warne. Their battle was fascinating. In all, Smith faced 78 balls from Warne, and scored 30 runs, but 24 of them came from the 34 balls that Warne bowled to him in the afternoon session.

Warne consistently attacked him outside the off stump, trying to exploit the rough, but Smith was competent enough to defend the good balls, and cream the loose ones through the off side – where he scored 19 of those 24 runs. His ability to punish the full-length ball was particularly impressive – Warne sent down four such balls in the second session, and was hit for 12 runs. And on the 26 occasions that Warne landed it on a good length, Smith scored only seven runs. It was perfect Test-match batting – defend the good balls, but take full toll of the bad ones.

After tea, though, Smith suddenly lost his attacking instincts, as Warne tightened his length. Off the 22 balls that Warne sent down in the evening session, Smith managed only one run. Warne's good-length percentage went up from 76% in the afternoon to 86% after tea. He did send down two half-volleys, but Smith failed to cash in on either of them.

As it turned out, Warne finally had his man caught behind, though somewhat controversially.

S Rajesh is sub-editor of Wisden.com in India.

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